K.J. Wright: Seahawks edge rusher Darrell Taylor has 15-sack potential

During this week’s K.J. Wright Show, the former Seattle Seahawks was asked a straightforward question about one Hawks position group.

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“Which edge rusher has the highest ceiling?” Brock Huard asked him.

That position group is an intriguing one for the Seahawks as they locked up Uchenna Nwosu after a 9.5-sack 2022 season and drafted Boye Mafe in the second round last year and Derick Hall in the second round this year.

But Wright went with the other Seahawks edge rusher that, like Nwosu, tied for the team lead with 9.5 sacks last year.

That would be Darrell Taylor.

“This guy’s so fast. This guy can bend so well. This guy is so elusive. He’s so creative,” Wright said.

After missing his rookie year with a leg injury, Taylor has shown he’s a very good edge rusher, tallying 16 sacks in 32 games over the last two seasons. Wright thinks Taylor is just scratching the surface of how good he can be.

“I look at Darrell Taylor, he hasn’t even figured it out yet,” Wright said. “He has not figured out how good he can be. Now just look at what he brings to the table. He fell into 9.5 sacks last year.”

“I’m telling you, if it can just click in his brain like, ‘I am talented, I am good, I want to take this coaching from Cliff Avril and (Michael Bennett), I’m going to just tap into that dog inside of me,’ this guy can be a 13-14 sack type of dude,” Wright added. “He can be a three-down player. It’s right there for the taking. I swear to you, it’s right there for the taking.”

Mike Salk asked Wright if Taylor can play the run well enough to warrant being on the field more, which could help him achieve that high of a sack number.

“He has the physical ability to do it,” Wright said. “But Salk you know how they say the game is 80% mental and 20% physical? He has the physical ability to do it, but he has to tap into those details. He has to train his eyes properly. He has to just watch film and watch his get off .. He is a guy that could be a 15-sack guy. And when I watched him last year, some games he’s here, some games he’s way over there. And so when I watch Darrell Taylor, he’s the guy that I’m really looking forward to seeing this year.”

A Seattle Seahawks Rookie of the Year?

The Seahawks had two rookies finish in the top three in Rookie of the Year voting last year, and he thinks the potential is there for one rookie to take home the award this year.

When asked if anyone jumped out to him while watching practice, Wright brought up Hall, specifically how physically imposing he is and how he shined at practice.

“He was at right outside linebacker, it was a blitz period, and when I tell you he put just a monster long arm on that tackle and just buried that got to the dirt, I’m like, ‘This dude is for real,'” Wright said.

Wright was in a production meeting and got to talk to Hall, and he gave the rookie some high praise.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to put this type of pressure on you, young man, but with the practice that I saw, you could potentially be Defensive Rookie of the Year,'” Wright said. “And he just looked at me like, ‘Bro, what are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Yes, with your skill set, with your strength, with your energy and your effort that you have, you could be Defensive Rookie of the Year in what I saw.'”

Listen to the full K.J. Wright Show at this link or in the player near the top of this story.

Video: K.J. Wright thinks Derick Hall can be Defensive Rookie of the Year

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