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Where's Jason? That's the game the Dolphin's will play with Jason Taylor—now you see him as a 3-4 linebacker, now you don't—in their new varied approach

Sporting News, The, August 19, 2005 by Kara Yorio

The cries of "Ja-son! Ja-son!" threaten to drown out coach Nick Saban's news conference nearly a field away. Dolphins fans have found their defensive star, Jason Taylor, as he walks toward them for a postpractice autograph session. At 6-6 and 255 pounds, he is difficult to miss.

An hour earlier, well into one of the opening days in Dolphins training camp, it wasn't so simple to spot Taylor. He was working on dropback moves in individual drills, towering over linebackers. Then he was working out with the linemen, blending into the pack of men more his size. And when the 7-on-7 drills started, forget it--he was everywhere.

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First, Taylor lined up at end, down and on the right. On the next play, he was standing next to the linemen on the right side, but he spotted the tight end and moved away from him, to the other side. Then he was back on the right side, a step off the line and again standing up. On one snap, he rushed the quarterback. On the next, he found the ballcarrier. On another, he dropped into coverage.

It was impossible to guess where Taylor would be next. Which is precisely the idea in the 3-4 defense the Dolphins will unveil in their first season under Saban.

"(It) puts him in the best position to make plays," Saban says of Taylor's new role as a 3-4 outside linebacker and end when the Dolphins use a four-man line. "His ability to do some things in coverage helps us have some (options) that we wouldn't have if everybody identified him as a rusher all the time. He is very athletic and bright and understands the concepts easily."

That's fortunate because the team's 2004 MVP has much to learn, even if Miami lines up in the 3-4 only as much as a quarter of the time, which it might. He is spending countless hours absorbing the new playbook and watching film, certainly more time than he spent learning the defense as an NFL rookie eight years ago. Taylor is excited about the new challenge, but he hasn't always been so enthusiastic. He was pretty successful doing it the old way, making a Pro Bowl career out of chasing the quarterback from his end position. Saban convinced him he could be even better.

"People don't want to change," Taylor says. "They get stuck in their ways, want to do what's easy for them--not what's easy but what comes naturally. That was my original thinking, but it was ignorant. I didn't know what they'd want from me. Once we talked about the things he wants to do and getting out and doing it, it's been a lot of fun."

It helped when Taylor was able to talk to a couple of players who have done what he is preparing to do. One was the Patriots' Mike Vrabel, who told him the switch will take time but that it will be worth it because he'll be able to do much more than just rush the passer.

Indeed, he'll have to rein in his natural instinct to move forward on every snap.

"His strength has always been going upfield, maybe getting the tackle overextended and then going up and under," says Vrabel. "Now he may have to stop and actually take on a block. That's a huge difference. You know, not always digging in. Maybe staying back a little bit and reading it. That's a lot different than going after the quarterback all the time."

That will be true even when the Dolphins are in the 4-3. Taylor says Saban's version of the 4-3 will be "a little tighter, more disciplined" than the team's 2004 version, which for him will mean less all-out pursuit of the quarterback and more reading of plays at the line.

According to ends who have made the move to 3-4 linebacker, the steepest part of Taylor's learning curve could be adjusting to coverage responsibilities. There's the physical aspect of backpedaling, both mastering the footwork and being in the right spot. The greater challenge, though, is being able to read play-action and draw plays, which could lead to Taylor's being caught out of position.

"Your natural instincts take over on a pure pass play or a pure run," says Falcons left end Patrick Kerney, who learned how to play linebacker in the 3-4 several years ago when Atlanta adopted the defense. "You're given a gap, you're given a way to hit a guy and get off him. That's pretty easy, but all of a sudden when you're thinking pass, you're in coverage and then you see a draw, it gets pretty confusing. You're rammed up into the tackle and you're starting to pass rush and then you realize your man is wide-open. That's the hard part."

The use of the 3-4, and the heaping of responsibilities on the team's best player, is not without risk. The defense was one of the few highlights in Miami's 4-12 season in 2004, ranking eighth in the league. But the Dolphins believe the defense can be even more effective if opposing offenses can't see what's coming as often.

"We were so basic last year, every offensive line would slide his way every time," says linebacker Zach Thomas. "Now, a 3-4 is really like five down linemen. People think it's just three down linemen, but you've got two outside edge rushers and then three in the middle. So it's not like a 4-3 where it's only four down linemen. So you can take advantage of a lot of things. If they're sliding his way, you can blitz from the other side. You can do so many different things, (the offense has) to change it up."

Where's Jason? That's the game the Dolphin's will play with Jason Taylor—now you see him as a 3-4 linebacker, now you don't—in their new varied approach

Sporting News, The, August 19, 2005 by Kara Yorio

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