Where Are They Now: Troy Taylor

The Jets seemed to have had a QB pipeline to Sacramento in 1990.

Veterans Ken O’Brien, Tony Eason, and Troy Taylor, who was drafted in the fourth round out of Cal that year, each graduated from a high school in California’s capital city.

“All of us were from the same area, and so those guys really took care of me. They were guys that had been around and both are really good people. So I was very lucky,” Taylor said. “Kenny and I would train running and lifting and explosiveness with a guy named Al Biancani, who is kind of a Sacramento legend. I obviously followed Kenny’s career and then met him through Al a couple of times. So we had crossed paths.”

Taylor began following the path to a career in football before he knew how to spell career.

“My dream my whole life was to play football and coach football. That was it from about the age of 7,” Taylor said. “I was always drawing up plays. I would sit in bookstores and read football books in the aisles. Anybody that’s been around me, when they think of me, they think of yellow legal pads.”

After being drafted by the Jets, Taylor’s attention shifted from yellow to Green & White.

“For a kid like me, it was kind of surreal to actually become a reality when I was drafted by the Jets,” Taylor said. “It’s one of those things you dream about your whole life. And then when it happens to you, you worked really hard, but you also feel very fortunate.

“When you think of New York, you think in New York City, obviously. I was mostly a suburban kid, and then you get out there and it’s more Long Island. But at that point, I was excited, nervous, all of those things. And there were really good people there, so they made the transition pretty easy.”

Taking the field for two late-season games, the rookie put points on the scoreboard both times. On December 16, he notched his touchdown pass at Giants Stadium against the Indianapolis Colts.

“I threw a fade route for a (10-yard) touchdown to Rob Moore on the right sideline. That was a great…