{"id":896712,"date":"2026-05-20T21:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:24:16","slug":"rookie-rb-looking-to-prove-himself-ive-always-been-an-underdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896712\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie RB Looking to Prove Himself: “I’ve Always Been an Underdog…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE \u2013 J’Mari Taylor<\/a>‘s new football mission is clear, difficult and attainable.<\/p>\n

Become the latest Jaguars player to continue a long-standing, important tradition \u2013 and in the process, to be an impactful underdog story.<\/p>\n

“It’s really nothing new for me,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Taylor, speaking at the Jaguars’ recent 2026 Rookie Minicamp, was speaking about his goal of making the team as an undrafted collegiate free agent \u2013 something two players, defensive ends B.J. Green II<\/a> and Danny Striggow<\/a>, achieved last season.<\/p>\n

This year it could be any number of players, but one early candidate very well could be Taylor.<\/p>\n

“When you looked at him against some of the top backs in the draft, production against the same teams and what that looked like, I thought was pretty impressive,” Head Coach Liam Coen<\/a> said following rookie minicamp.<\/p>\n

Taylor has the “Jaguars DNA” Coen and General Manager James Gladstone<\/a> have made a franchise priority. A former zero-star recruit who walked on at North Carolina Central, Taylor transferred to Virginia last season, and the Charlotte, N.C. native put together a stellar season.<\/p>\n

Taylor rushed 222 times for 1,062 yards (4.8 YPC) and 14 touchdowns for the 11-3 Cavaliers, earning first-team All-ACC honors in the process. That production has a lot to do with why he ended up on the Jaguars’ radar.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, the season that Virginia had, a lot of it had to do with his success and his ability to both affect the game in the run and the pass game as well,” Coen said. “So, people just slip, like bounce off of him in ways. He forced a lot of missed tackles and he’s super sharp.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2013 J’Mari Taylor‘s new football mission is clear, difficult and attainable. Become the latest Jaguars player to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[120383,7,130,48575,212,125,2401,213,1302,1642,131,133,6,1918,5258],"class_list":["post-896712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-2026-offseason-program","tag-football","tag-front-page-headline","tag-jmari-taylor","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-james-gladstone","tag-liam-coen","tag-news-front-page-headline","tag-news-jaguars-news","tag-nfl","tag-sponsor-dream-finders-homes","tag-sponsors-dream-finders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116609015029602691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896712","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=896712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}