Fred Taylor

At 48 years old, Fred Taylor has this physical status:

College career

Taylor accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he competed for coach Steve Spurrier's Gators from 1994 to 1997. Taylor played in two games as a true freshman, receiving 873 yards and eight touchdowns. He appeared in six games as a sophomore in 1995, receiving 281 yards and scoring five touchdowns. Taylor played for 629 yards and five touchdowns in 1996 and helped the 12–1 Gators win the national championship. Taylor, the team's top rusher with 1,292 yards on 214 attempts and scoring 13 touchdowns in 1997, was named by his teammates as the team's Most Valuable Player (SEC)'s highest rusher, earning first-team All-American awards and third-team All-American honors, and Associated Press third-team All-American honors, and was voted the Gators' Most Valuable Player. With 3,075 yards and 31 touchdowns, he finished his college career ranked fourth in school history.

The Gainesville Sun sports editors named Taylor as the No. 1 in one of a series of articles analyzing the top 100 players from Florida's first 100 seasons. Gator Gary Welch, the 36th world's best. In 2008, he was inducted into the Florida–Georgia Hall of Fame, and the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2010.

Professional career

Taylor was drafted ninth overall in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars, the first of two picks they acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Bills in exchange for quarterback Rob Johnson. Taylor played for 1,223 yards and 14 touchdowns as a rookie in 1998, the last total being a career high, while still collecting 44 passes for 421 yards and three touchdowns.

Taylor played in ten games in 1999, beginning nine games, but then had to cancel six due to a hamstring injury. He finished second on the team with 732 yards, but he had two 100-yard rushing appearances in the playoffs. In a 62-7 victory over Miami, Taylor tied for the longest stretch in playoff history with a 90-yard touchdown run. He missed three and a half games in 2000 but finished sixth in the NFL with 1,399 passing yards and 12 touchdowns, while still finishing sixth with 36 catches for another two touchdowns. Taylor appeared in the first two games of 2001 before suffering from a groin injury and missing the remainder of the season.

Taylor played 23 out of a total of 48 games from 1999 to 2001, with injuries causing him to miss 23 out of a possible 48 games. Fans and journalists were highly critical of Taylor's habit of getting hurt, questioning his toughness and donning him the moniker "Fragile Fred," which greatly shocked him as he later admitted. Despite knowing that Taylor's season was over in Week 3 of 2001, Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin named him on the injury report as "questionable" every game for the remainder of the season, fueling fears of Taylor's toughness in the minds of fans. He hasn't completely rid himself of the stigma and the name.

Following the 2001 season, it was alleged that Taylor's handler William "Tank" Black had stolen between $12 million and $14 million from players he had represented, and that Black had laundered almost all of Taylor's $5 million signing bonus, the only sure money in his rookie deal. In an interview with Jaguars.com founder Vic Ketchman in November 2007, Taylor confessed to serious retirement from football early in his career because of the injuries he suffered with and Tank Black.

Taylor was back for the Jaguars in 2002, leading with 1,314 yards, the third most on team history, and a new record for the team. With 49 receptions, the second-highest on the Jaguars in terms of 408 yards, he also had eight touchdowns, second-highest on the Jaguars, and tied for second. In 2003, he played in all 16 games for the Jaguars, going for six touchdowns on 345 yards. He also ran for 48 yards on 370 yards. Taylor played in 2004, totaling 1,224 yards and two touchdowns in the first 14 games of the season. He had his streak of 46 starts before being sidelined by a knee injury in the last two weeks of the season.

Taylor was hampered again in 2005, when he played 11 games while missing five games due to injuries throughout the season. Despite being a touchdown runner, he still led the team with 787 yards while also gaining three touchdowns. Taylor was brought into the Jaguars backfield by Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jaguars' second-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and Taylor's eventual replacement. Taylor started 15 games and finished with a 5.0 yard-per-carry average of 231 yards on five touchdowns, despite sharing carries throughout the season. He also had 23 receptions for 242 yards and one touchdown. Taylor and Jones-Drew combined for 2,087 yards, the most by two rushers in Jaguar history.

Taylor averaged 1,202 yards on 223 passes, a career-best 5.4 yards-per-carry average, in 15 games starting as a team captain in 2007. In a game against the Tennessee Titans on November 11, Taylor reached 10,000 yards in his career. Taylor rushed for five straight 100-yard games in late November and December, earning him the AFC Offensive Player of the Month award. With four rushes of 50-plus yards and two of the four longest rushes in the NFL in 2007, he came in first in the NFL and finished with two of the four longest rushes in the league in 2007. Following the season, he was named to the Associated Press second-team All-Pro team and was named as a health substitute for the 2008 Pro Bowl, his first appearance of his career.

Taylor played the first 13 games of the season as a rookie with a thumb injury on December 11. Taylor, the team's second straight season, surpassed both the 11,000 yards per year and 13,000 career all-purpose yards records on the year. Jones-Drew, a third-year player, ran for 824 yards on 197 attempts, finishing the season with 556 yards on 113 attempts.

When asked about his future with the club, Taylor said, "All of it still has to deal itself." I'm not sure how it will turn out. Taylor said that it was obvious to him that the company was headed in "another direction" as a result of his reduced presence on the team and the increase in his salary that was expected to be paid if he had remained on the roster.

Taylor was fired by the Jaguars after 11 seasons with the club on February 16, 2009.

Taylor was signed by the New England Patriots to a two-year deal on February 27, 2009. He appeared in the first four games of the season, starting one, before suffering an ankle injury against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 4. Despite the fact that the injury was supposed to keep him out until late in the season, the Patriots decided not to put Taylor on injured reserve but instead deactivated him. Taylor played for the Patriots' Week 16 match against his former team, the Jaguars, on December 27, 2009. He didn't play until the fourth quarter, but he did a good job with 35 yards on 11 attempts. He finished the season with 269 yards on 63 attempts and four touchdowns.

Taylor played in the first three games of the season as a reserve before suffering a toe injury against the Buffalo Bills in Week 3. He was inactive against the Detroit Lions until Week 12, but did not participate in the game. In the fourth quarter of the Patriots' Week 13 victory over the New York Jets, he saw his first snaps since Week 3. Taylor played in seven games all as a reserve, with 43 attempts for 155 yards (3.6 yard average) and no touchdowns.

Taylor officially resigned from the team that had drafted him ninth overall in 1998 on September 2, 2011.

Taylor will be the second player to be inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars on June 7, 2012. During the team's game against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 30, he was officially inducted on September 30.

NFL career statistics

Taylor held at least 42 Jaguars franchise records as of the 2017 season, including: "Joelb" at the start of the season.

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