30-Day Countdown: Day 23 - Comeback Player

Your nominees:

Keith Taylor - #8 - CB (Sr)

Taylor isn’t the traditional comeback player nominee. He’s been healthy, played a ton of football at Washington, and started every game a year ago. So what is Taylor coming back from?

Relative obscurity.

With some newer, flashier players in the mix last season —namely Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon— Taylor didn’t receive much attention. Big, game-changing plays are what get you noticed on defense, and during his three-year Husky career, Taylor has yet to really make any.

Zero interceptions, sacks, and forced (or recovered) fumbles; and just 3.5 tackles for loss.

Taylor has been really good for Jimmy Lake, but just not as great as we expected when he stepped in for Jordan Miller as UW’s tall cover-corner. If he comes back on a mission this season, it wouldn’t be a surprise. There are some talented players gunning for his job, and Keith Taylor’s NFL future starts now.

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MJ Tafisi - #53 LB - (So)

Inside linebacker is a position group that concerns a lot of Husky football fans. It was a problem area a year ago, and the competition is wide open for playing time in 2020.

MJ Tafisi hits hard, and that will always get people’s attention. It was his violent playing style that contributed to the neck stinger that would cost him the last six games of the 2019 season. A scary looking injury in Tucson where the RS Freshman was carted off on a stretcher ended up being less severe than it originally looked. Tafisi was examined at a local hospital, released, and traveled home with the team that night. Within three weeks he was practicing in a limited capacity, which would be his status the rest of the season.

The next day after the injury against Arizona:

We all love inside linebackers that can run, and Tafisi can run. He’s not Ben Burr Kirven fast, but more Keishawn Bierria fast with the same type of motor. Tafisi is built in that 6’0” 230 mold of BBK and Bierria. If he has the instincts of those two, and similar eye-discipline, he can bring a ton to the inside ‘backer position for UW.

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Ty Jones - #88 WR - (Jr)

Here’s a true “comeback player” candidate: A player who was highly touted coming in, impressed everyone in camp as a freshman, emerged as a sophomore, then disappeared with an injury.

Now Ty Jones is a veteran, and the most experienced WR the Huskies have. Who better to make 2020 his comeback campaign?

Jones was impressive in 2018, especially early on. In the Huskies’ first seven games, he hauled in 16 passes for 323 yards and five touchdowns. Jones would taper off, and finish with 491 yards on the season, but his 15.8 yards per catch would lead all Husky regulars.

Jones was poised to be one of Jacob Eason’s favorite targets last season, but a couple of injuries to his wrist, then thumb made it very difficult to catch the football, even in practice. Jones would miss the bulk of the season, only playing sparingly in four games and never catching a single Eason pass.

Entering the 2020 season as a redshirt junior, Jones is the greybeard of the WR corps.

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