Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Devin Taylor emerging piece of Lions defensive line

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Devin Taylor hasn’t entered a season in this type of role before. His first three years in the league, Taylor was still learning. He knew he was going to be a backup, someone asked to do a certain amount of things in somewhat limited opportunities.

Not now. Not this year. Taylor is a starter for the Detroit Lions now, something the defensive end earned after he emerged the second half of last season as a consistent player opposite Ezekiel Ansah. It was a long way from where he was at this time last season, when he was still trying to figure everything in his career out.

He had a strong mentor and training partner in Darryl Tapp, who helped the young player navigate the NFL. Tapp was not re-signed this offseason, but this preseason has left Taylor understanding more and focusing more on getting into a rhythm than just trying to figure everything out.

“I would say because of the amount of growth I’ve done over the last three years, this year just seems a little bit, not easier for me, but everything in front of me is not overwhelming me at any point.”

Taylor felt that way in 2014, his second year in the league. Last year he started understanding more, eventually making 35 tackles with seven sacks -- more production than his first two seasons combined.

This year, it’s even surprising to him he’s being looked at as a leader of the defensive line. The Lions have Haloti Ngata at tackle and Taylor’s classmate, Ansah, at end, but Taylor has all of a sudden become a veteran in the NFL.

And even he’s not sure how that happened. But it has.

“I figured I’d have to be six or seven years [in] or something like that for that to occur,” Taylor said. “It’s something I guess I have to take and roll with it.”

How’s he done it?

“Any time a younger rookie or something like that has a question or something about, just about anything, as far as defense and other stuff,” Taylor said. “Being able to provide, like, an answer just because you’ve done it so many times before is actually very helpful.”

It’s what Tapp and others that have come and gone from the Detroit locker room did for him his first three years in the league. So now, he’s trying to pay it back, even if he is still just 26 years old.

One of the other things he’s noticed is how this year’s defensive line has coalesced pretty quickly. In years past, he felt it took a while for the Lions defensive line to really find its chemistry. Last season, Taylor said the Lions didn’t figure it out until later in the season.

There were also times in Taylor’s first three years where he thought “it was a little more individualistic, everyone kind of wanted to do their own thing” away from football. Not so now. He said the Lions defensive line has been spending a lot of time together, both in practice and away from the field, as well.

That matters when you have to understand a player’s likes and dislikes lining up next to him. Every little bit of knowledge helps. And that the talent level across the line is pretty consistent also helps.

“If we’re strong inside, a lot of times if you’re not strong inside, you may get a guard or center may leave to go kind of chip and help on the ends, but if you’re strong inside that leaves the ends with a little bit more opportunities for one-on-one rushes,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “So I think it all works hand in hand and when our ends are good, that helps the tackles.

“Because if they need to help on our ends, then the tackles inside are one-on-one and we have some guys that we think can help win inside.”

That’s something Taylor also recognized. The Lions hope that by having a starting line of Ansah, Ngata, Taylor and Tyrunn Walker that they can create situations where choosing to double-team one player -- likely Ansah or Ngata -- will create a favorable matchup somewhere else down the line.

The line is a strength for the Lions -- a constant on a team otherwise filled with question marks.

“We’re all uniform together, so for us, we feel like they can’t single-target one person because we’re all at some point going to cause a potential problem, maybe,” Taylor said. “Even with our quote-unquote twos and everything, it’s the same exact thing.”

A lot of that has to do with Taylor’s improvement to become a NFL starter.

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