How playing safety has made Davion Taylor a better linebacker

Davion Taylor was in the middle of a lifting session when he was surprised by a guest: Colorado’s associate athletic director for football, Lance Carl.

Carl told Taylor that head coach Mel Tucker wanted to speak with him, so Taylor cut his lift short. The pair took the elevator up to the top floor of the Champions Center and walked to Tucker’s suite overlooking Folsom Field.

When Tucker greeted them at his door, Taylor didn’t know what to think.

That’s when tucker pulled out a letter from executive director Jim Nagy inviting Taylor to the Senior Bowl.

“I didn’t even know what to say,” Taylor told DNVR. “I was speechless.”

Taylor’s trip to Tucker’s office was short. Carl and Tucker congratulated the senior and then Taylor went back to work, still speechless. When the reality of what had transpired sunk in, Taylor picked up his phone.

“I just called everybody and told everybody how excited I was,” Taylor said.

The invitation wasn’t totally out of the blue. Nagy told Taylor at the beginning of the season that he was on the right path and to keep it up. He also told Taylor that he was officially named to the Senior Bowl Watchlist, along with fellow-Buffs Steven Montez and Delrick Abrams. 

But, even if it wasn’t a complete surprise, the invitation was still an incredible new peak in the 21-year-old’s unlikely football career. Just four years ago, Taylor was a senior at South Pike High School in Magnolia, Mississippi who had never played a down of football due to his family’s religious beliefs.

In 2016, Taylor walked on at Coahoma Community College with no film and by the end of his freshman season was a starting outside linebacker. He broke out in his sophomore season, earning a four-star composite ranking from 247Sports and he eventually chose Colorado over multiple SEC offers.

At Colorado, Taylor’s role changed. He played the STAR position, a hybrid outside linebacker/safety job. His responsibilities shift week-to-week and season-to-season as the STAR is asked to flip its focus between coverage, run-stuffing and pass-rushing. 

In 2018, Taylor worked almost exclusively with the outside linebackers. He learned how to shed blocks and read offensive linemen. In Tucker’s defensive scheme, the star is more similar to a safety, so Taylor worked out with the defensive backs for most of the season, learning how to mirror slot receivers.

By working on his cover skills with the secondary—learning how to read the hips of opposing route-runners, for example—Taylor has figured out how to put his All-Pac-12 sprinting speed to use.

“That’s one thing that I think will take me far,” Taylor said.

For the last few weeks, Taylor has been back with the linebackers, primarily because of the schemes employed by the opponents his Buffaloes have faced. Run-heavy teams who use multiple tight ends require a STAR whose ability to brush off blockers and set the edge is sharp. 

But what is Taylor, a safety or a linebacker?

“Honestly, I’d just say I’m a hybrid,” Taylor said. “If I had to choose, I’d be a true outside linebacker because I love going with the big guys, reading the guards, reading the tackles.”

The skills Taylor developed while working with the defensive backs have helped him as he’s played a more traditional linebacker role recently, he says. Taylor feels more comfortable in coverage, where he’s no longer trying to beat up receivers to keep them from running their routes. Instead, Taylor has learned the nuances of man coverage; he can read his opponents hips and make a simultaneous break.

“Now I feel like I can guard any tight end because I was guarding slots,” Taylor said. “All of the little things I’m working on are just making me a better football player in general. At the next level, wherever they want to put me, I think I’ll be ready.”

Taylor didn’t realize he had to accept the invitation, initially. He was scrolling Twitter, seeing the Senior Bowl account announce the names of those who had committed to playing in the game, when he realized he needed to figure out how to accept the invitation. Eventually he found the website and signed up.

While it’s exciting to think of his trip to Mobile, Alabama where scouts, executives and coaches from around the NFL will gather to evaluate some of the elite talent in the draft, Taylor is trying to find a balance between letting the game motivate him and distract him.

“I just try to take it day-by-day because I never know what might happen tomorrow,” Taylor said. “God forbid, I might tear my ACL or something like that.”

But at the same time, the last week in January is circled on the calendar.

“It hypes me up,” Taylor said. “I know I’m going to go play against some of the best seniors in the nation so I know I have to get better.”