Herb Taylor goes deep, then catches his breath
New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin watches his players stretch during a conditioning test on the first day of training camp in Albany, N.Y. (Aug. 1, 2010) Credit: AP
Because the Giants were so short-handed at tight end, they had to enlist back-back-back-up tackle Herb Taylor to play the position. Not only did he get to do some blocking from the position, but he also got to fulfill every offensive lineman’s dream by running a deep route down the sideline.
Turns out it’s not all it was cracked up to be.
“It’s very tiring,” Taylor said in a Giants.com release. “Running routes is tiring.”
The Giants didn’t give Taylor much warning about the change, which came because Kevin Boss, Travis Beckum, Jake Ballard and Scott Chandler were all sidelined. Bear Pascoe was the only true tight end available.
“We just had a couple of guys down and they told me this morning, when we went over some things,” he said. “You just have to do what you have to do sometimes. The thing they stress here is the more you can do (the better). They asked me to play tight end and I’m trying to do that to the best of my ability. I’m a guard/tackle. But I’ve been a tackle my whole life, so even playing guard is new to me.”
Still, it must have been a thrill to run that deep route, right? It was certainly fun watching big ol' number 68 lumbering down the field, even if it was an incompletion in his direction.
“I messed up the route,” Taylor admitted. “I was supposed to run a 10-yard out and it turned into a 30-yard flag route. I just wanted to get open and not make a fool of myself. I was supposed to clear out for the real tight end to make the play.”
Tom Coughlin didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was grateful for the efforts that both players made.
“I thought that Bear Pascoe and Herb Taylor did an outstanding job with allowing our team to practice today, are you kidding me?” Coughlin said.
