He doesn’t weigh any less than last year. He wasn’t inspired by his Pro Bowl trip. He doesn’t view himself as a mentor to his new safety partner.
Shortly after the Redskins broke camp Thursday — and a day after the team had its mandatory media training session — Sean Taylor ended his silence. It was Taylor’s first interview since he arrived for organized team activities in mid-May.
Some in the building have seen a more mature Taylor this summer, pointing out his comfort level with coaches and teammates. Taylor spoke for a little more than six minutes, ranging from defensiveness to contentious and the maturity showed through in his confidence in speaking with reporters — something that has been absent in the past.
His coaches have said that Taylor has grown as a player, too. But he didn’t always agree with their assessments.
Assistant head coach/defense Gregg Williams called him a mentor of sorts for rookie safety LaRon Landry. But Taylor said, “I’m not a mentor. We’re both learning.”
Williams also said two weeks ago that playing in the Pro Bowl “lit a fire” in Taylor. And that was why Williams thought Taylor lost more than 10 pounds this offseason. But Taylor said he weighs the same as last year — 225. However, he appears smaller and is listed at 212 pounds, which Taylor jokingly explained by saying he had “shaved his facial hair.”
He said Hawaii did not serve as an inspiration.
“It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget,” he said. “[But] you know what, I take this job very seriously. You play a kids’ game for a king’s ransom. If you don’t take it seriously enough, eventually you’ll say, ‘I could have done this, I could have done that.’ I’m going into my fourth year and why not do the best I can? Whether it’s eating right or training harder or studying harder.”
Having the designation of free safety matters little to him.
“I’m a safety, man,” Taylor said. “I play free, strong, whatever you ask of me.”
Taylor said former Redskins teammate, Ryan Clark, who will be in town this weekend with the Steelers, did not serve as a mentor — numerous coaches and teammates long had talked about Clark’s influence with him.
“He did nothing,” Taylor said. “He played with me; he was a teammate. … I don’t think anyone in the NFL is tied to each other. Ryan’s a good guy, I wish him all the best.”
As for his on-field rapport with Landry, Taylor said, “Every day I get more comfortable with him and he gets more comfortable with me. [But] it’s not a who-I-feel-comfortable-with situation. We have to play football.”
