It flew under the radar, but the New York Giants had one of the better linebacking corps in the NFL back in 2024.
While Bobby Okereke took a step backward due to injury, Mika McFadden had a breakout year. Unfortunately for the Giants, and McFadden in particular, the linebacker suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1. McFadden is now a free agent and there’s no guarantee that the Giants would bring him back, and even if they did, they could still use more (and better) depth.
Texas A&M’s Taurean York is an athletic, instinctive, and productive linebacker in the mold of Ivan Pace Jr. But like Pace Jr., York falls pretty far outside the “prototypical” physique for an NFL linebacker. Could that knock him off the Giants’ board, or would it make him an excellent value?
Prospect: Taurean York (number 21)
Games Watched: vs. Notre Dame (2025), vs. Auburn (2025), vs. LSU (2025)
Red Flags: None
Measurables
Height: 5-foot-10 (unofficial)
Weight: 227 pounds (unofficial)
Strengths
Best traits
- Mental processing
- Instincts
- Athleticism
- Competitive toughness
Taurean York is a compact, explosive, athletic, instinctive, and competitive linebacker prospect.
York is built like an ambulatory fire hydrant at 5-foot-10, 227 pounds, yet he plays the game like a Jack Russell Terrier. He simply flies around the field, with the attitude that nobody ever told him he was small, and arrives with bad intentions.
York is an instinctive linebacker who processes the game quickly. He consistently makes a prompt and accurate first move toward the play, correctly anticipating the direction the ball will go. He doesn’t freelance and does a good job maintaining the structure of the defense, but also puts himself in position to be a factor when the ball goes his way.
He’s an athletic off-ball linebacker with true sideline-to-sideline range and enough speed to arrive at the ball in a hurry. He’s fast enough to run down the field with tight ends and running backs in coverage, and also has remarkably quick feet and hips in coverage. York also does an excellent job of getting depth in zone coverage and keeping his eyes in the backfield to read the quarterback.
York is also a surprisingly capable run defender given his frame. He understands how to make use of his height to create natural leverage and maximize his play strength. That allows him to use his athleticism to make first contact with offensive linemen, while his leverage and density allow him to effectively stack and shed them. He frequently jolts linemen back and is able to slip past them before they recover. His speed also allows him to run down ball carriers in the backfield and disrupt plays before they have a chance to mature.
He has excellent competitive toughness, and is unafraid to mix it up with linemen or deliver hits as a tackler. York gives great effort on every play and is a secure tackler who can bring even larger tight ends down in space.
Weaknesses
Worst traits
- Height
- Lenght
The only true weakness in Taurean York’s game is one that he can’t do anything about: His height.
York would be short for a slot cornerback and is very short for a linebacker. He’s impressively stout, somehow packing nearly 230 pounds onto his 5-foot-10 frame, but his lack of length shows up at times on tape. He can have trouble disengaging from blockers who are ready for his pop and leverage. Likewise, he has a limited catch-denial radius in coverage. That can make matching up against tight ends in coverage difficult and put him at a real disadvantage at the catch point. York also has a relatively playmaking radius, just missing interceptions or tackles, as well as struggling to clog passing lanes by getting his hands up on the way to the quarterback.
There are also instances where York is a bit slow to redirect and scrape laterally when ball carriers cut back. That could be due to his height and vision into the backfield, or being a bit slow to abandon his gap.
Game Tape
(York is the Texas A&M linebacker with white tape on the backs of his arms, wearing number 21.)
Projection
Taurean York most likely projects as a nickel linebacker at the NFL level, however he has starting every-down upside for the right team.
York will likely be a favorite of coaches over the course of the process, both for his instincts and competitiveness as well as how he uses his “undesireable” traits to his advantage. Teams that want bigger linebackers will likely look elsewhere, however teams that value speed at the second level could find a lot to like in York. He has impressive upside as a coverage linebacker and should also be an asset in the run game if used correctly.
York’s height (or lack thereof) makes projecting his draft stock difficult. His talent suggests an early Day 2 draft slot, however teams could move him down boards simply because he falls so far below normal thresholds for the position.
Does he fit the Giants? Yes, though the size of his role would depend on defensive scheme.
Final Word: Taurean York most likely projects as a nickel linebacker at the NFL level, however he has starting every-down upside for the right team.
York will likely be a favorite of coaches over the course of the process, both for his instincts and competitiveness as well as how he uses his “undesireable” traits to his advantage. Teams that want bigger linebackers will likely look elsewhere, however teams that value speed at the second level could find a lot to like in York. He has impressive upside as a coverage linebacker and should also be an asset in the run game if used correctly.
York’s height (or lack thereof) makes projecting his draft stock difficult. His talent suggests an early Day 2 draft slot, however teams could move him down boards simply because he falls so far below normal thresholds for the position.
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