"He will definitely provide a lot of flexibility for us. He's got a lot of tools"
The honeymoon phase is as cuddly as one would surmise in its infancy.
The reciprocal feelings are warm and fuzzy for New Orleans Saints cornerback Alontae Taylor and his new coaching staff, which believes it fully can tap into the multiplicity offered by Taylor, who has played outside and slot corner at various times his previous three seasons.
The new head coach, Kellen Moore, and new defensive coordinator, Brandon Staley – each are the third for Taylor, who has 47 games and 37 starts under his NFL belt – quickly have gone about the business of seeing what Taylor can do in a defense that will allow him to test his limits.
"He will definitely provide a lot of flexibility for us," Moore said Thursday, after the Saints completed their fifth OTA workout. "I think that's one thing from a defense perspective, we've emphasized to these guys being able to line up in multiple ways.
"Alontae is one of the primary guys about that – his ability to play the 'Star' position, which is really the nickel position as most people learn it, and the outside corner position. He's going to be able to do both and that's going to allow us to be able to play some matchup football when we need to play matchup football.
"I think he does a really good job. He's good against the run, he's a really good blitzer – I think that has shown. He's got a lot of tools."
Taylor's full array was on display the first four games last season when, as the nickel, he posted 3.5 sacks (three in the season-opening victory against Carolina), four quarterback hits, four passes defensed, four tackles for loss and 24 tackles.
But as the secondary took on significant losses – starting cornerbacks Paulson Adebo (broken leg) and Marshon Lattimore (hamstring injury, then trade) completed their Saints careers after Weeks 7 and 9, respectively – Taylor was tasked with moving back to outside corner, where he admittedly struggled.
With a clean slate and new defense to learn this offseason, Taylor appears refreshed and eager to rise to expectations.
"I've actually had a lot of fun playing in it," Taylor said of Staley's defense. "I've been able to move around, kind of play my style of play. But once I kind of grasp the playbook and things like that, I've been able to freely play. The playbook side of it, I've kind of gotten an idea of how it wants to be played, now I can go out there and just use my style of play.
"It lets me play with that freedom and we can communicate. I'm surrounded by some good guys, guys who are going to allow me to kind of play free."
And Taylor isn't alone in his affinity for movement in the new defense.
Free agent signee Justin Reid played safety in Kansas City under coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who orchestrated defenses that helped the Chiefs win Super Bowls LIV, LVII and LVIII and to advance to Super Bowl LIX, which they lost to Philadelphia and Moore, its offensive coordinator.
Reid was on those last three Super Bowl teams with Kansas City.
"(Staley) is doing some unique things that I haven't even seen Coach Spags do, so it's fun to be able to get into the system and see the way that he changes things around," Reid said. "It's deep and, for me, I like doing a lot of different things, so he has a lot of different things in and it's stimulating and it's fun.
"(The scheme) is dynamic. It's really fun. Like, sometimes I've been in defenses that are almost too simple but Coach Staley understands how to be dynamic and how throw things at the offense that you can't be just one-dimensional, as far as the defense playing the offense just doing one play all the time.
"So he has so many different wrinkles in the defense. We're in a learning period right now so there's going to be mistakes, but guys are at this point starting to catch on."
That includes Taylor, who currently is enamored of what's being thrown his way.
"I feel like me playing inside has helped me a lot as far as the knowledge of the game, knowing where I need to be," he said. "Kind of playing inside, playing outside and having guys like (cornerbacks) Kool-Aid (McKinstry) and Ike (Isaac Yiadom), those guys come in and play on the outside of me, it feels good knowing that they know where they're supposed to do as well."
