BIOGRAPHY
Darrell Taylor was born on March 24, 1997 in Hopewell, Virginia. He is a defensive end in the NFL.
Taylor attended Hopewell High School, where he played basketball and football. Rated a four-star recruit, Taylor committed to play college football at the University of Tennessee over offers from Florida and Virginia Tech.
As a redshirt freshman, he made nine tackles (one for loss) in eight games played. He finished the season with 27 tackles, four tackles for loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles. As a redshirt junior, Taylor led the team with eight sacks and 11 tackles for loss with 36 total tackles. Taylor entered his redshirt senior year on the Chuck Bednarik Award watchlist. Taylor finished the season tied for second in the SEC with 8.5 sacks and led the Volunteers with 10 tackles for loss along with 46 total tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and four passes defended.Taylor finished his collegiate career with 118 tackles, 26.5 tackles for loss, and 19.5 sacks with six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and seven passes defended in 38 games.
Taylor was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, but did not participate in any drills due to an offseason surgery. Taylor was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round with the 48th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. He was placed on the active/non-football injury list at the start of training camp on August 3, 2020. He was moved to the reserve/non-football injury list at the start of the regular season on September 5, 2020. He returned to practice on January 5, 2021, but the team did not activate him before the end of the season.
