FOXBORO — JJ Taylor’s week didn’t start out so hot. He had a little case of the dropsies. That was Monday. Four practices later? His coach is comparing him to one of the most exciting backs in recent Patriots history.
“Little Dion, that’s what he is,” said running backs coach Ivan Fears, referencing now-Giants back Dion Lewis.
“Little Dion. Exciting, fun . . . He’s got some great hurdles to overcome, and the kid battles his butt off to try to get that done. We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen from him, we really are. We’ll see how far he can carry it.”
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That’s high praise. Lewis was one of the great reclamation projects of the Bill Belichick era in New England. After bouncing around the league — Philadelphia, Cleveland, Indianapolis — and bouncing back from injury, Lewis signed with the Patriots in 2015. He was electric.
Using his tremendous leg strength and eye-opening quickness, Lewis juked defenders regularly, leaving tacklers grasping at air regularly. Before tearing his ACL in the middle of the 2015 season, he averaged 4.8 yards per carry and caught 36 passes for 388 yards (10.8 yards per reception).
Part of what made Lewis so hard to track down was that, at times, it seemed as though he got lost behind the line of scrimmage. But Taylor is even smaller than Lewis, who is listed at 5-foot-6, 185 pounds. That’s two full inches smaller than Lewis, who is listed at 5-8.
Fears’ nickname for Taylor, “little Dion,” isn’t an accident.
“Have you seen him out there,” Fears asked with a laugh? “Same quickness, same suddenness. He’s a hell of a pass-catcher. Guy’s got great vision. There’s a [expletive] load of stuff that’s good about him. He’s got to learn to play bigger than his size.”
Taylor saw plenty of reps this week as some of his fellow backs have dealt with injury. Sony Michel and Lamar Miller remain on the physically unable to perform list, so Taylor has played behind James White, Rex Burkhead and Damien Harris.
On Thursday, Taylor was stuffed twice at the goal line. His frame might not be built for that. But prior to that, he made a contested catch in the front corner of the end zone that has gone down as one of the best plays of the first week of training camp.
At the University of Arizona, Taylor showed he had the quickness, the vision and the hands to play at the next level. He also was a factor in the kicking game as a returner. But he wasn’t drafted.
Now he has a chance to capitalize on the many reps he’s received with a bit of a thinned-out running back depth chart taking the field day after day at Patriots training camp. It won’t be easy for Taylor to crack the regular-season lineup, but his versatility and his dynamic athleticism — which has evoked memories of one of the most dynamic athletes the Patriots have had in the last five years — gives him a shot.
He’ll just have to conquer several challenges on his way to the 53-man roster if he’s going to land there.
“First it’s being a rookie,” Fears said. “Second, everybody has some physical deficiencies they’ve got to handle, and his size is something that he can handle and he has to deal with when he’s playing. With a first-year player coming in, there’s a lot of things he’s got to learn and a lot of things that he’s got to do better.”
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