Some of the Tennessee players, including DB Alontae Taylor, met with the media to kick-off Week 10. Photo by RTI.
VFL Alontae Taylor is returning to his home state of Tennessee to join the Titans. According to a report from NFL insider Jordan Schultz on Monday afternoon, Taylor is joining Tennessee on a three-year, $60 million deal with $42 million guaranteed.
The move brings Taylor back to the Volunteer State. He grew up in Manchester, TN, and played college football at the University of Tennessee from 2018 to 2021. Now, after spending his first four seasons in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints, the former second-round pick is taking his talents to the Titans and new head coach Robert Salah.
Taylor was widely looked at as the best free agent cornerback in the cycle and one of the Top 10 players overall. It was unsurprising to see him get a deal done so quickly at the start of the free agency period.
Since his reported signing, experts have weighed in on what they think of Taylor’s deal. There’s a pretty wide range of opinions, so here’s a breakdown of what’s come out so far.
The Athletic is the highest on Taylor’s signing with the Titans, with Mike Jones and Daniel Popper giving an ‘A’ grade for the transaction.
“After four seasons in New Orleans, where the Saints drafted him in the second round in 2022, Taylor is headed to Tennessee, where he’ll contribute in an overhauled secondary,” Jones writes. “The 6-foot-1, 199-pound Taylor has good versatility with the ability to cover from the slot or on the outside. His 52 pass breakups rank fourth in the NFL since 2022.”
Fox Sports’ team of writers, including Ben Arthur, Ralph Vacchiano, Eric Williams, and Henry McKenna, isn’t in the ‘A’ range, but they are pretty high on what Tennessee did as a whole on day one. Fox Sports gives Tennessee’s trio of Cor’Dale Flott, Alontae Taylor, and John Franklin-Myers a combined ‘B’ grade overall.
“According to NFL Network, Tennessee committed $74 million fully guaranteed between Flott and Taylor,” Fox Sports writes. “That’s doable for the Titans, who entered free agency with over $90 million in cap space, but it’s still a hefty price tag. That says a lot about how bad the outlook was for the Titans’ cornerback room — the L’Jarius Sneed deal a couple years ago was a disaster — and how the team views the CBs in this year’s draft.”
The lowest opinion on the Titans’ move to acquire Taylor comes from ESPN’s Seth Walder, who believes that the Titans overpaid for Taylor’s services. Walder gives the Titans a ‘C-‘ for the acquisition, saying that Taylor’s $20 million per year contract is more than he expected and is “too expensive for a player who does not have a long track record of eligibility.”
“Taylor is coming off a nice season in New Orleans in which he allowed 1.0 yards per coverage snap and allowed minus-1 EPA playing primarily as a nickel, per NFL Next Gen Stats,” Walder writes. “But what scares me is how big of a departure those numbers are from what he posted the two prior seasons, in each of which he allowed 1.6 yards per coverage snap and double-digit positive EPA when targeted.”
Overall, a mixed bag of reviews, which is generally what you would expect from the free agency period. It’s a time when teams are usually spending a good bit of money and it’s all pretty subjective until you see how things work out on the field.
Taylor, though, should prove to be a quality piece with Tennessee’s rebuilt defense.
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Taylor originally joined the University of Tennessee’s football program as a four-star recruit out of Manchester, TN, in the 2018 recruiting class. He spent four seasons with the Vols, three of which were coached by Jeremy Pruitt with the final year on Josh Heupel’s inaugural roster. During his time in Knoxville, Taylor appeared in 45 games with 31 starts, racking up 162 total tackles, five tackles for loss, four interceptions, 19 pass deflections, three forced fumbles, and half a sack. He also recorded two touchdowns during his four years, with a fumble recovery in the endzone in 2018 and a pick-six against Kentucky in 2021.
Taylor turned a productive collegiate career with Tennessee into a second-round selection with the New Orleans Saints in the 2022 NFL Draft.
The six-foot cornerback played in 64 career games with the Saints during his first four years in the league. He recorded 293 total tackles, four interceptions, seven sacks, and three forced fumbles. Taylor was a key piece of New Orleans’ secondary with 53 starts in his 64 games for the organization.
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