Alontae
Taylor.
Alontae
Taylor.
Tennessee· 6'0"· 199 lb· 4.36s 40
"A four-star receiver recruit who switched sides as a freshman and left Tennessee as the rare corner whose tackling tape was better than his coverage tape."Pre-draft read
Long, physical outside corner who spent five years at Tennessee and started as a wide receiver before switching sides. He plays a press-and-trail game: he wants his hands on the receiver at the line, he runs the route from the hip and he tackles like a safety when the ball goes the other way. The 4.36 speed shows up in his ability to recover after a poor jam.
He is at his best in man coverage on the boundary, where his length and top-end speed let him play aggressive without a safety over the top. In zone the eyes and the depth of his drops can wander. The tape is a run-support corner as much as a coverage one, and the separator is competitive toughness: he will fill on a crack replacement and take on a pulling guard.
Man-heavy scheme that presses on the boundary and can slide him into the nickel on early downs to use his tackling
Year 1 outside corner in press coverage on 40-50 snaps with special-teams work; ceiling is an every-down starter who plays both boundary and slot
A pattern-match zone system that asks corners to keep their eyes in the backfield and pass off routes with disciplined depth
His run-support value makes him more useful in the slot than most converted boundary corners.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS: Alontae Taylor
Career cut-up on the boundary: press reps, recovery speed and run support.
Alontae Taylor 2020 Season Highlights
Junior-year tape from the shortened 2020 SEC schedule.
Alontae Taylor pick-6 against Kentucky
The 2021 interception returned for a touchdown, his only career defensive score.
Taylor is a 6-foot, 199-pound boundary corner and a five-year Tennessee starter who arrived as a high-profile in-state receiver recruit and converted to defense as a freshman. The position switch defines the evaluation: elite testing speed, real physicality, and technique that was still catching up to the athletic tools.
He was durable and steadily productive rather than dominant, finishing with 162 tackles, 15 pass breakups and four interceptions in 45 games, with his best season in 2021 under Josh Heupel at 60 tackles, six breakups, two picks and a pick-six. What stands out is how much of his value came away from coverage — he tackled at a rate few corners match and set the edge against SEC run games. The flags were the ones you would expect: grabby at the top of routes, inconsistent eye discipline in zone and only four career interceptions on 45 games of exposure.
Boards had him as a third- to fourth-round developmental corner whose 4.36 forty lifted him after the Combine. New Orleans, without a second-round pick until acquiring one, took him at 49 — a reach on most boards.
- 01
Straight-line speed
a 4.36 forty at 199 pounds gives him the recovery gear to stay attached after a lost step at the top of a route.
- 02
Press physicality
wants contact at the line, disrupts timing with his hands and forces receivers to widen off their intended stem.
- 03
Run support
tackles like a safety from the boundary, fills the alley and takes on blockers rather than waiting for the ball carrier.
- 04
Positional versatility
a converted receiver with the size and mentality to move into the slot or play in nickel packages if needed.
- 05
Durability and experience
45 games and four years of SEC starts against the best receiver rooms in college football, with no missed-time history.
- 01
Ball production
four interceptions in 45 games says he plays the man far better than he plays the ball at the catch point.
- 02
Zone eye discipline
drifts and peeks at the quarterback, which lets crossers and double moves get behind his leverage.
- 03
Grabby at the stem
a hands-on style that draws holding and pass interference flags when receivers separate cleanly.
- 04
Route anticipation
the position switch shows in his recognition; he reacts to the break rather than seeing it coming.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.36sp50
- Vertical
- 34.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Tennessee | 12 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2019 | Tennessee | 13 | 33 | 0.5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | Tennessee | 8 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Tennessee | 12 | 60 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Career | — | 45 | 162 | 0.5 | 4 | 15 | 3 |
2020 and 2021 verified directly on cfbstats (2020: 8 games, 29 tackles, 2.0 TFL, 1 interception, 4 pass breakups; 2021: 12 games, 60 tackles, 1.0 TFL, 2 interceptions for 85 yards and a touchdown, 6 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble). His 2018 and 2019 cfbstats pages are not published, so those lines come from his season ledger. Every category reconciles with the career ledger: 45 games, 162 tackles, 5.0 TFL, 0.5 sacks, 4 interceptions, 15 pass breakups and 3 forced fumbles.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long, physical boundary corner who starts for years without ever becoming a shutdown name.
Undersized-role corner who becomes a full-time slot starter on tackling, toughness and blitz value.
Athletic convert whose eye discipline and ball skills never catch up to the speed.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Alontae Taylor has been a starting cornerback for the New Orleans Saints, playing both outside and in the slot. He has shown solid coverage skills and physicality in his first two seasons.
New Orleans found more than most boards expected. He played 13 games as a rookie in 2022 with 44 tackles and 11 pass breakups after being thrown into the lineup, then moved inside to nickel in 2023 and put up 69 tackles, 14 breakups and two interceptions. The 2024 season was his heaviest workload — 17 games, 88 tackles and 16 pass breakups — and he followed it with 82 tackles, 11 breakups, two interceptions and two sacks across a full 17 games in 2025. Four seasons, 64 games, 283 tackles, 52 pass breakups: he has not missed a game since his rookie year.
The pick was criticized as a reach on draft night and it has aged well. What made him unusual in college — the tackling, the physicality, the willingness to play in traffic — turned out to be exactly the profile that lets a corner move into the slot and stay on the field for every snap. The interception numbers never came, just as the evaluation warned, but a four-year every-down starter at 49 is a good outcome, and New Orleans identified a versatility the consensus did not price in.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.