Here’s why there’s no Seahawks alarm over putting rookie Darrell Taylor on NFI camp list
The news understandably sent alarm signals to any fan who remembers the major injuries for Malik McDowell and L.J. Collier the last few summers.
But there’s no alarm from the Seahawks at putting Darrell Taylor on an injury list to start this training camp.
The team knew when they drafted Taylor in the second round this spring that the edge pass rusher would need time off the field to continue his rehabilitation from lower-leg surgery.
Seattle put Taylor on the non-football-injury list Monday, the first day of the team’s strength and conditioning portion of training camp.
Taylor played last college season through a stress fracture in his lower leg he got in August. He played through Tennessee’s bowl game and the Senior Bowl college all-star showcase for NFL scouts in January, then had surgery Jan. 30.
Surgeons inserted a Titanium rod in Taylor’s leg.
“My leg feels as healthy as a horse,” now, Taylor said in April.
The Seahawks did their first individual conditioning workouts of training camp on Monday.
The team still expects Taylor to be a candidate for the weakside, “Leo” defensive end position and pass rusher this season. That’s what Seattle traded up and drafted him to do, to help what was the second-worst sack unit in the NFL in 2019.
The players aren’t starting practices until Aug. 12, at the earliest, per 2020’s COVID-19 protocols the league and its players’ union agreed to last month in order to begin training camp. Their first padded practices are to be Aug. 17. So Taylor has time to continue his rehabilitation and still participate in the bulk of the true football practices in preparation for the season.
Seattle’s is scheduled to begin Aug. 13 at Atlanta.
The Seahawks also placed running back Rashaad Penny on the physically-unable-to-perform list for the start of camp, as expected. Penny could begin the season on the PUP list and miss the first six games. He had surgery in December to repair torn knee ligaments.
The Seahawks placed tight end Colby Parkinson, the rookie draft choice who had surgery in June for a broken foot, and defensive end Marcus Webb on the non-football injury list. The three rookies count towards the active roster.
The Seahawks released rookie defensive end Josh Avery with a non-football-injury designation. Avery is an undrafted rookie free agent who signed in May.
