Being a vocal leader is not for everyone, but it is a role that Houston Texans quarterback Tyrod Taylor developed during his lone season with the Cleveland Browns in 2018.
Cleveland acquired Taylor for a 2018 third-round pick from the Buffalo Bills to keep the seat warm for quarterback Baker Mayfield, who eventually took over as the starter in Week 3 and hasn’t looked back since.
Although Taylor’s time in Cleveland did not conclude the way he hoped, he knows that he grew during that span.
“I think I grew as a person during that year, dealing with adversity, also becoming more of a vocal leader than I had before up until that time,” said Taylor. “Their team that we had in Cleveland in ’18 was fairly young, so you had to find different ways to lead. Of course, at the time, I want to say I was 28, I think I was like the third-oldest on the team. Guys looked at me as the oldest guy, or one of the older players — more vocal at times.”
Taylor went 1-1-1 as a starter. It is the most action he has seen over the past three seasons as he was Philip Rivers’ backup with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019 and Justin Herbert’s mentor in 2021, starting in just one game.
“It’s tough to remember or it’s tough to take away from [2018], but more important, I think it was more on the personal side than it was actually football,” Taylor said.
Taylor will get a reunion of sorts with his former Browns teammates as the Texans travel to Cleveland to take on the AFC North club Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at FirstEnergy Stadium. A win would make it the first time since 2016 that the Texans have started the season 2-0, and the first time in his career he has ever been on a team that accomplished such a feat.
