He's been absolutely phenomenal. Homerism aside, at the very worst he's had a Pro Bowl caliber season. Everybody talks about how great Revis is and how he's the class of the league. Guess what? Ike held Wes Welker to 39 yards. Welker went wild against the Jets. He held Boldin catchless in a playoff game last year. Was the only Steelers DB to not get absolutely shredded in the SB. Opened the season by giving Lee Evans the "Boldin treatment". Made Reggie Wayne look ordinary. Only allowed Andre Johnson to have the cheap underneath stuff. Kept Fitzgerald in check and now 39 yards for Welker. Again, call me a homer all you want. All I'm saying is you would be hard pressed to find a more underrated player than a guy like Taylor that continues to impress without any of attention or accolades.
A little karma for Shannon passing up on the Bills a couple of years ago. Loved seeing his face at the end of the game.
It wasn't just that. For those that didn't watch: Schematically, the Steelers went away from their standard zone blitzing defense and played the Pats WR's one-on-one. Which, as it turns out, is brilliant considering the Pats have almost no speed in their WR core. That's the way to play them. The longer it takes for those guys to get open, the more time your pass rush gets to swarm in on Brady. And let's not kid ourselves here: Brady is a different player when he's actually getting hit. Once you make him sweat, that's whenever the frustration kicks in (i.e. starts MF'ing his offensive line, chastising his guys for not getting open, anticipating hits, etc). The only guy we didn't have an answer for is that Gronkowski tool because: 1) He's like a foot taller than anyone covering him and 2) He has great hands. With Ike Taylor on the field suffocating Welker, he's definitely the only guy that legitimately worries me.
Clearly Taylor doesn't get enough credit. But I think Welker had one catch against the Jets of 75-yards that wasn't against Revis. Revis held him to about 3 catches, 8 yards IIRC. It was a total shutdown.
Well, I could be wrong then. Admittedly, I didn't watch much of that game but I thought I remember reading the overall sentiment was Welker had outplayed Revis. Again, could be wrong.
To verify, I just read a Boston Globe article and it looks like you are correct. Right after that game, I read a postgame write-up that said Welker did almost nothing when Revis lined up against him.
I think that Ike Taylor has always been a solid cover man who has been overshadowed by the rest of the defense's more accessible personalities. He's having a heck of a season so far. Revis, Taylor, Joseph, Leon Hall clearly the class of the AFC at CB.
I targeted McCoy in my draft because, looking at his last year totals, I realized that he wasn't totally dependent on having a massive season carrying the ball to be effective. Last year he only had 1000 yards rushing, but was still among the leaders in fantasy due to his pass catching ability. Thus, I felt that he would be a guy that would poise the least risk of all of the running backs. I felt that he could actually get better. Sufficed to say, I like what he's done so far.
