Leonard Taylor III scouting report: Exploring the Miami interior defensive lineman's strengths and weaknesses

A top-15 national recruit in 2021, Leonard Taylor III saw action in the final nine games of his true freshman season, which he finished with 21 total tackles and tied for team lead with 7.5 tackles for loss, along with two sacks. Starting nine of 12 contests played in year two, putting up 24 total tackles, 10.5 of those for loss and three sacks, earning honorable mention All-ACC.

This past season, his negative plays created were cut down to exactly a third of those, as part of his 19 stops.

Profile: 6-foot-3, 305 pounds; JR.

Breaking down Leonard Taylor III's scouting report

Run defense:

• Packs an alien-like combination of size, quicks and power
• Regularly is a half step ahead of the rest of the D-line and creates penetration to the offensive backfield
• Flashes the insane upfield burst to shoot the gap between the guard and tackle on the backside of outside zone concepts cleanly, before the blocker can even come close to scooping him up
• Has some freakish natural force in his hands to flat-back blockers trying to seal him on the backside of run concepts
• Off that, he packs the grip-strength to pull guards and centers off himself as the ball-carrier approaches
• You see moments of Taylor sticking his foot in the ground after taking a couple of steps up the field and making a hard 90-degree cut in order to become a factor chasing down the line on plays away from him
• Has some reps where he just shoves a pulling guard out of the way and creates traffic in the backfield
• The effortlessness with which this guy tosses running backs to the turf when he gets his hands on them is almost comical

Pass-rush:

• Offers an impressive first step to put the guy across from him at a disadvantage in passing situations, especially if they’re in slide protections and have some room to cover
• Capable of driving interior linemen who have 20+ pounds on him into the quarterback’s lap
• Then throws out some devastating push-pull moves against guards off that
• Dynamic lateral movement on loops to the outside from 0- or 1-technique alignments, along with taking the inside lane at times when tackles try too hard to cut off his angle on those
• Taylor’s natural athletic talents and length allow him to free himself of blockers and chase after the quarterback more often than he should, even if he doesn’t win the rep
• The sophomore’s 19.5% pressure rate in 2022 trailed only Pittsburgh’s Calijah Kancey among Power Five interior defensive linemen – 85.5 pass-rushing grade
• That’s despite routinely feeling four hands on him with opposing teams sliding their protection in his direction, regularly lining up at the nose
• Constantly gets his long arms up to dissuade quarterbacks from throwing the ball over his head

Weaknesses:

• Pops up out of his stance and doesn’t yet read and counter the first step(s) of offensive linemen at all really, getting too enamored with locking horns at the line of scrimmage with guys
• Clearly has the short-area agility to scrape over the top of down-blocks and affect plays where he’s basically being pinned down away from the action, but doesn’t click quickly enough to actually make it happen
• Will be moved of his landmarks and get undisciplined with his run fits in general, just trying to dip underneath or spin off contact – had a PFF run defense grade of just 64.4 last season
• Certainly raw with no real legit sign of putting together a comprehensive pass-rush plan and getting to secondary moves if he gets hung up initially – only logged multiple pressures in four of ten games last season
• For a supposedly freaky athlete, Taylor finished in the 40th percentile or worse in all the combine drills he participated in (excluding short-shuttle and bench press)

Leonard Taylor III's 2024 NFL Draft prospect

I simply couldn’t put Leonard Taylor III inside the top-10, which seems crazy considering he was looked at a potential top-20 pick last summer. However, in 2022 you at least saw the flashes of physical dominance, before those decreased this past season along with not showing any improvement in terms of his understanding or reactions for what offenses are doing.

Based on the tape from last year alone, he’s a day-three flyer because he just doesn’t really know what he’s doing out there, and then the athletic testing didn’t nearly live up to the hype.

Now we have to question if that’s representative to what he is or if he didn’t prepare as well as he could’ve for the combine – which would also be concerning, when we already question the way he gets himself ready for gamedays. So this is a very challenging projection because the film will tell you that this guy has pretty freaky explosion off the ball and natural strength, but the testing doesn’t back it up and if you’re taking this guy with a top-100 pick, you’re betting on those traits.

I think you’re looking at a guy with starter potential as a three-technique in an even front or a base D-end in a 3-4, but Leonard Taylor III’s far from it at this point.

Grade: Fourth round