Alontae Taylor reflects on Tennessee career, looks forward to NFL: 'Take it all in and enjoy the moment'
Alontae Taylor looks forward to looking NFL scouts in the eye on Wednesday during Tennessee’s Pro Day to prove that he’s a man of his word.
Taylor recalls telling scouts that he would run a 4.38 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, and he actually ran a 4.36.
“A lot of them had my sign it for my word, and I did what I did and I can’t wait to see those scouts here tomorrow so I can look them in their eyes and be like, ‘I’m a man of my word,'” he said.
Taylor added that as he’s reflected on his Tennessee career, he remembered that getting to the cusp of the NFL was once a dream, and now he’s living it.
“I deserve it,” he said. “For the first time, I kind of sat down and was like, ‘You worked your tail off for this. You deserve to be here and this is where you’re supposed to be. So just take it all in and enjoy the moment, and don’t let it go by too fast, so I can one day have a story to tell my kids.'”
Alontae Taylor (@taeetaylor) is a man of his word. NFL scouts learned that when he ran a 4.36 at the combine. #Vols pic.twitter.com/tjh9iEhWcz
— Reece Van Haaften (@Reece_VH) March 29, 2022
As VFL Alontae Taylor prepares for his Pro Day tomorrow, I asked him what this moment means to him as he gets to live out the dream of working to be drafted into the NFL. @taeetaylor pic.twitter.com/pcxQRJS6rt
— Karthik Venkataraman (@KarthikV_) March 29, 2022