{"id":680174,"date":"2026-01-15T21:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680174\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:12:13","slug":"new-patriots-pass-rusher-offers-inside-intel-on-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680174\/","title":{"rendered":"New Patriots pass rusher offers inside intel on Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBOROUGH \u2013 Darrell Taylor<\/a> signed with the Houston Texans last offseason to be part of something special. It\u2019s why the edge rusher opted to go down south instead of signing with the Patriots<\/a> in free agency.<\/p>\n

When the Texans opted to release the veteran on Monday, Taylor said it was a no-brainer to come to New England and signed with the Patriots\u2019 practice squad<\/a> two days later. Now, the 28-year-old is in Gillette Stadium helping his new team prepare for his old team in this weekend\u2019s AFC divisional matchup.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Taylor told MassLive he believes he can provide the Patriots with insight to help them beat the Texans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I feel like there\u2019s stuff you can help with. You\u2019ve been around. I\u2019ve been there for freaking 10 months,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI would say, yeah, there\u2019s stuff I can help them out with, but there\u2019s only so much they let me know over there. I didn\u2019t play like that anyway, but I made sure I paid attention. There\u2019s definitely stuff that I can help them with, especially going against that offense. Just going against them in practice every day. So, I feel like I can offer a lot for the Patriots to help us win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second-round pick in 2020, Taylor was quick to emerge as a solid NFL pass rusher with the Seattle Seahawks. After missing his rookie season with an injury, the pass rusher finished with 6.5 sacks in 2021. Taylor put up a career-high 9.5 sacks and 13 quarterback hits during the 2022 NFL season and finished with 5.5 sacks the next year.<\/p>\n

Taylor was traded to Chicago and played in 16 games last season, making three sacks and nine quarterback hits. This offseason, he became a free agent, and on Wednesday, Mike Vrabel revealed that Taylor was one of the Patriots\u2019 targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about coming here once the free agency process started,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI think my agent probably was leaning a little more toward Houston just because of the background of what they had going on. I wanted to be a part of something really great, too. So, I didn\u2019t really get to finish with them. So, picking up with New England, I\u2019m just hoping that I get a chance to show them what I got and get a chance to help this team do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Taylor dealt with an ankle injury and landed on the injured reserve on Nov. 5. He played in four games with the Texans, making three tackles. The edge rusher was activated off the injured reserve last week. On Monday, hours before Houston\u2019s playoff game against Pittsburgh, Taylor was released due to the Texans needing roster space for safety Jaylen Reed.<\/p>\n

Two days after being let go, Taylor said the Patriots came calling, and he spoke with Vrabel. He noted that the conversation was easy since they had already talked in free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018We would love to have. We already talked. We already know what you can do,\u2019\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWhen Houston released me, my agent called me two days later and said that New England was interested. That really made my day, because I didn\u2019t want to be done. Being here is a really big opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the four games played this season, Taylor helped on special teams and defense. He said he\u2019s willing to do whatever it takes to help the Patriots and hopes to be elevated from the practice squad for Sunday\u2019s matchup against his former team. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a crazy situation,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cJust being with a team for a season and then getting let go before the first playoff game. It\u2019s been tough. But getting the call from New England and talking with my agent and talking to the guys around here, it\u2019s definitely been a wake-up for me just to be able to be back in the playoffs and have the opportunity to be elevated to help this team win. So I feel like in my book that\u2019s a plus for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH \u2013 Darrell Taylor signed with the Houston Texans last offseason to be part of something special. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,3185,221,253,2368,99375,99376,6,31185,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-680174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-helmet-off","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-kg1_1544","14":"tag-kg1_1544-nef","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nflraw25","17":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115901179685867046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}