Phil Taylor among coaches awarded with Redskins Bill Walsh Fellowship
Phil Taylor was never healthy enough to play for the Washington Redskins during the regular season. Now, he will get a chance to coach with them as part of the Bill Walsh Fellowship.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Redskins announced their candidates for the 2019 Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship. Per the Redskins official site, the program “exposes talented minority college coaches, high school coaches and former players to the methods and philosophies of NFL coaching staffs.”
The program was started in 1987 with the 49ers and is named for their legendary head coach and pioneer of the West-Coast offense, Bill Walsh.
Of the list of candidates this year, one name stands out among the rest. That’s Phil Taylor. A former first-round pick by the Cleveland Browns, Taylor spent two seasons with the Redskins while they tried to solve some of the problems they had at nose tackle. He looked good in the 2017 offseason, and some thought he could start at nose tackle. Unfortunately, a torn quad sidelined him in the preseason and he was placed on Injured Reserve.
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Taylor returned to the team in 2018 but didn’t make the final cut after the team added talent to their defensive line in the form of Daron Payne, Tim Settle, and Caleb Brantley. Taylor stayed unsigned during the season and retired in March at the age of 31.
Having Taylor around as a coach, no matter how long it’s for, is intriguing, as he will likely get a chance to learn from Jim Tomsula via this fellowship. Tomsula is arguably the best defensive line coach in the NFL, and Taylor was coached by him during his time with the Redskins. If he can absorb enough knowledge from Tomsula, perhaps he could become a solid defensive line coach. And at the very least, he should have a rapport with some of the players on the team that he knows.
The other fellows working with the Redskins include Arkansas assistant wide receivers coach Kelvin Bolden, Lincoln University head coach Joshua Dean, Charleston Southern co-defensive coordinator Bryant Foster, Catholic University of America defensive coordinator Kevin Hubbard, Tusculum University defensive backs coach Larry Murphy, Navy outside linebackers coach Napoleon Sykes, and Redskins strength and conditioning intern Devin Salley.
Next. Breaking down Redskins TE depth chart for 2019. dark
It will be interesting to see if any of these coaches do well enough to put themselves on the ‘Skins’ radar moving forward. We’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on Taylor to see if he can carve out a coaching career in his post-NFL days.