Herb Taylor embracing new job

Herb Taylor never had played tight end in his life. Until this week with the Giants.

The offensive tackle already was learning a new position at guard in training camp when a glut of injuries at tight end forced him to make the switch to the position. Now he’s out there blocking and even running the occasional routes for the offense. And don’t expect that to change by the time Monday’s game rolls around.

“That’s looking like a definite possibility,” he said of the chances of him playing tight end against the Jets. “I’ll just go out there and hopefully it’ll be mostly run plays that we’re doing and we’ll go on to the next play.”

Taylor has been mostly relegated to running plays. But of course there was the one time earlier this week when he ran downfield and found the ball thrown in his direction. He later said that he ran the wrong route.

“I just got excited,” he said. “I saw I beat the corner off the ball and I was like ‘I’m open! Throw me the ball now!’”

"It was just luck," he added. "I really don’t think [the corner] expected me to go out for a pass. He was probably as shocked as I was."

Taylor isn’t expecting to catch any passes on Monday. But if he does, he said it would be a memorable experience. He imagines he’d start to get some grief from his fellow offensive linemen about such an accomplishment as well.

When it was pointed out that most linemen think they have great hands, Taylor laughed.

“There’s a difference between thinking that they have great hands and knowing it,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I have great hands. I have big mitts with tape covering up all of my fingers, so I don’t think Eli or Rhett or Jim will be looking for me anytime soon.”