2010 Spotlight: WR Taylor Price – Ohio Bobcats

by Chris Kouffman (CK)

If there is one thing that jumped out at me early about the 2010 NFL Draft, it is that the senior Wide Receiver class lacked pizazz. Help may be on the way from the juniors, but there are not many sexy size/speed stories amongst the experienced seniors.

With that in mind, taking a look at Taylor Price of the Ohio Bobcats was a surprising pleasure. Price is listed at 6’1″ and 212 lbs, and has supposedly in the past been clocked at 4.36 in the 40 yard dash. Knowing full well ’tis the season for inaccurate listings, I took to the game tape to see him for myself.

I have watched now a total of four games of his, including his performance against Central Michigan in the MAC Championship, and his performance against Marshall in the Little Caesar’s Bowl.

The game that stood out to me was when the Bobcats took on the Tennessee Volunteers. In this game he would get a chance to work against the likes of Eric Berry, Brent Vinson and Janzen Jackson. These are SEC players with SEC speed, they’re not the East Tennessee State or some such.

The following is a video that I put together from his performance against the Volunteers:

What you notice about Taylor right away is that his speed listing probably is not that far off. I tend to doubt he will really bust out a 4.36 at the Combine, but a time in the low 4.4′s certainly would not be surprising, and that is plenty fast enough. He worked for the most part against troubled but talented junior CB Brent Vinson, cousin of current Atlanta Falcon and former Hokie CB Jimmy Williams. Vinson has since been kicked off the football team for disciplinary reasons, but one thing we know about him is that he does not have mediocre speed. He supposedly has been timed at 4.45 in the past. During the Tennessee game, Price was able to run with and by Vinson on deep routes.

Also, if you fast forward to 3:19 into the above video, you see an opportunity for speed calibration against other players. This is something I have learned to look for, since every year guys show up at the Combine and Pro Day with times all over the board that either disappoint or pleasantly shock you. On this particular play, Taylor Price runs deep down the field with his teammate in order to see if he might have an opportunity to block someone. What you notice is that in full stride he is running step for step with CB Marsalous Johnson, who in the past has supposedly been clocked at 4.43 in the 40. They are both also running at least as fast as SS Eric Berry, who was playing slot CB on the play. Berry is supposedly a 4.40 speedster.

As for size, I do tend to doubt the 6’1″ and 212 lbs listing, which is not abnormal as 75 percent of all college bio listings turn out to be pretty inaccurate one way or another. If you fast forward to 3:33 into the video above and freeze frame, you see Taylor Price and Eric Berry engaged in a full on staredown. Neither looks bigger than the other, to my eyes. Berry is listed at 5’11″ and 203 lbs. This is probably a more accurate guestimate for Taylor Price’s size.

Aside from the gift of speed the thing that stands out about Price is, as the video commentary indicates, his feistiness and demeanor. A guy either shows up on the football field with a chip on his shoulder, ready to fight and scrap any way he can, or he doesn’t. You’re not going to coach that into him. Here he was set to go up against a big, bad SEC team in the second game of the year. He wasn’t intimidated by the likes or Eric Berry, the freshman sensation Janzen Jackson, or the Volunteers’ speedy corners, not even when Jackson put on a heck of a hit on Price as he tried to find the hole between the corner and safety in cover two. He didn’t just go about his own business passively trying not to allow them to affect him. He brought the fight to them. After Janzen’s big hit, he put a doozy of a move on Vinson getting 5 to 7 yards open on the sideline. Later in the game on a toss play, he could have jogged out his blocking duty or chosen a different target, but he chose to send Jackson flying with a nice cut block. Ohio regularly made use of his blocking prowess by bringing the ball behind him, and giving him block responsibilities on much bigger players.

In the MAC Championship Game against Central Michigan, he showed that fighter’s mentality when he bounced back from a failed lateral that resulted in a turnover, to throw a perfect deep ball for a touchdown on another trick play call on the following drive. I consider that a sign of mental toughness. When some players screw up, they go in the tank. With other players, they become more likely to make a big play.

From what I have seen in four games, Price lacks elite hands or consistent ability to adjust on the ball. His hands are adequate, which means he is capable of bringing down the tough catch as you see at the very beginning of the video. But, it also means that if a pass is not timed the way he was expecting or thrown to the spot he was expecting, he is not able to consistently see the ball and haul it in. He is not incapable of adjustment, as you can see on the deep throw later in the video when he has to slow and cut deep inside the field on a poorly thrown ball. He tends to have the most trouble adjusting to balls thrown behind him as opposed to ahead of him.

His routes are not lazy, but they are not polished either. He does not sink his hips in his breaks, which is an issue you might also see in a Golden Tate. Body control does not appear to be an issue. He takes about two yards to come to a stop on hitch and dig routes, which can be contrasted with a player like Arrelious Benn, who regularly takes longer due to lack of control. Price uses his hands well, you can see that on the play at 1:38 into the video above as he fakes the slant and runs to the sideline. He was not easily re-routed by CB Art Evans at 1:53, either. He possesses intriguing run-after-catch (RAC) skills, and the Bobcats made use of them as part of their offensive repertoire.  One impressive aspect of his game seen on the video against Tennesse was his natural ability to run the proper route depth in order to exploit the holes in a classic cover two zone.

For the year, excluding the Little Caesar’s Bowl, he had 52 catches for 735 yards and 5 TDs. He ran 10 times for 94 yards, and completed his one pass attempt for a 29 yard TD. As Simon (Boomer) once said to me, it’s a wonder he had any catches at all considering the Quarterback throwing him the ball. Theo Scott may look big, fast and talented, but at times he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from 10 feet, and too often he lost sight of the football field. We are not fans.

Taylor Price is scheduled to participate in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Obviously, someone other than us has noticed the kid. I would look for him to bring the same fight to practices against the best seniors in the country as he did against Tennessee. He is not a guy I see easily overwhelmed by the talent around him.

Right now, given the weak senior receiving class, I would value him in the 4th round of the upcoming draft, with an option for further movement depending on how he fares during Senior Bowl practices and the all-important NFL Combine.