Mike Taylor (born October 7, 1989) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

who is currently a free agent. He played college football at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. He has been a member of the Seattle Seahawks of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

College career

2008

Taylor redshirted his first season. He was named Wisconsin's defensive scout player of the week at

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

on November 8.

2009

Taylor was named on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team by Sporting News. Taylor played and started seven games as a freshman. Taylor suffered a season-ending knee injury against

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. He led the leam with 46 tackles at the time of his injury.

2010

Taylor was named consensus honorable mention All-Big Ten. Taylor played in and started 12 games. He was second on the team in tackles-for-loss, tied for second in interceptions and fourth in tackles.

2011

Taylor was named first-team All-Big Ten by the media and second-team by the coaches. He was also chosen as UW's co-Jimmy Demetral Team MVP. He was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the week two times in 2011. First was against

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

after recording nine tackles, forcing a fumble, recording 1.5 TFLs and adding a sack. Second was against

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

after recording 14 tackles with one tackle for loss and one interception. Taylor also recorded a career high 22 tackles against

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, the most by a Badger since 1998. Before the season, Taylor was on the watchlist for the

Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

which is awarded to the nations best linebacker. Taylor was also listed on the preseason watchlists for All-Big Ten, first-team by Althon and Blue Ribbon and second-team by Phil Steele.

2012

Taylor was named first-team All-Big Ten by the media and honorable mention by the coaches. Recorded a season high 15 tackles twice against Utah State on September 15 and

on September 29. Before the season Taylor was on the watchlists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy,

Lombardi Award The Rotary Lombardi Award is an award for college football in the United States. Awarded by the Rotary Club of Houston, Texas annually to the college football player "who best embodies the values and spirit of NFL's legendary coach Vince Lomba ...

and the Lott IMPACT Award.

College statistics

Professional career

Taylor underwent surgery for a sports hernia in March 2013 and therefore missed the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foo ...

and the Wisconsin

Pro Day The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

. Taylor went undrafted during the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall ...

. Since October 7, 2013, Taylor has had tryouts with the Green Bay Packers,

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

and Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle Seahawks

On December 11, 2013, Taylor signed with the Seattle Seahawks practice squad. He was released on December 19. The Seahawks signed Taylor to a

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

on February 10, 2014. On August 11, Taylor was placed on the injured-reserve/waived list.Fainaru, Steve and Mark Fainaru-Wad
Why former 49er Chris Borland is the most dangerous man in football
''ESPN''. December 28, 2015

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Mike 1989 births Living people People from Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Brown County, Wisconsin Players of American football from Wisconsin American football linebackers Wisconsin Badgers football players Seattle Seahawks playersq