Before Miami Dolphins draft pick Michael Taaffe and quarterback Quinn Ewers were teammates and close friends at Texas, Taaffe had the best day of his high school football career against Ewers.<\/p>\n
Taaffe, who was on the way to play for Texas as a walk-on safety, intercepted Ewers, the No. 1 recruit in the nation, twice in a state championship game, as Taaffe\u2019s Southlake High team defeated Ewers\u2019 Westlake Carroll squad for Texas\u2019 Class 6A title in 2020.<\/p>\n
One of them was a highlight-reel, one-handed snag<\/a>, where Taaffe sat underneath a route in zone coverage and elevated to pull it down with his right hand high above him.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, that was probably the coolest moment in my life because it was a \u201cSportsCenter\u201d Top 10, and No. 2 was Aaron Rodgers,\u201d Taaffe said. \u201cNo. 1 was little Michael Taaffe, walk-on at University of Texas. So pretty cool to know that you jumped over \u2018A-Rod\u2019 on \u201cSportsCenter\u201d Top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cat the time\u201d does a lot in Taaffe\u2019s sentence. He\u2019s established several more \u201ccoolest moments\u201d in his time with the Longhorns, with Ewers alongside him for most of them. Included among them, earning his scholarship at the end of his redshirt freshman season in 2022 and then later being a second-team All-American as a junior in 2024 and first-team All-SEC selection last season.<\/p>\n Maybe the newest coolest moment of his life occurred last Saturday<\/a>, when Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley came calling to let him know he was Miami\u2019s selection with the 158th pick<\/a>, a fifth-round choice.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin two minutes of getting announced, Quinn FaceTimed me, and I got to talk to him,\u201d Taaffe said. \u201cHe was just so fired up. His girlfriend and my girlfriend are really close also, so I think she\u2019s just as happy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe played each other in the state championship game my senior year against each other, and then we came together at Texas to play together, and now I guess we\u2019re going to be teammates again. Man, it\u2019s so awesome. Who would have thought when we went out there as captains in the state championship game that it would turn into teammates in the NFL in Miami? So, pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t it for Taaffe. His selection by the Dolphins made him one of three Longhorns in Miami\u2019s 2026 class, and that was a year after the team drafted Ewers in the seventh round. Before Taaffe, it was edge rusher and linebacker Trey Moore in the fourth round. After them, offensive guard DJ Campbell was selected in the sixth round.<\/p>\n Taaffe had 222 tackles, seven interceptions, 21 pass breakups and three sacks over three seasons as a starter and another as a rotational defender. All his college accolades and his draft position, still undersized as a 6-foot, 190-pound safety, are even more remarkable considering he started that journey walking on to the team.<\/p>\n \u201cHow I did it, I never once told myself I was going to go be an All-American and all these accolades,\u201d Taaffe said. \u201cI just cared about the team. When I got there, I was like, \u2018All right, I\u2019m going to make an impact for the University of Texas,\u2019 and that\u2019s what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was never really about myself, and once I got that opportunity, it was like, \u2018Wow, look what putting the University of Texas first, putting your team first, putting your teammates first can really get you.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Putting the team first showed results. Texas went from 5-7 when Taaffe and the core he was a part of were freshmen, they then reeled off three consecutive 10-win seasons, a conference championship game and two College Football Playoff semifinal appearances.<\/p>\n \u201cI was proud of what we were able to do at Texas, but it all started off the field with the ability to be a leader in there and what culture we brought,\u201d he said. \u201cIt started with what nobody could see on the field. It started inside those four walls in the locker room and the brotherhood that we made.\u201d<\/p>\n That sounds like a future leader. There\u2019s an evident character Sullivan and Hafley are looking for with many of their picks, similar to what linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/a>, a second-round pick<\/a>, was for Texas Tech.<\/p>\n If it takes time for them to establish their voice, that\u2019ll be fine. The Dolphins have voices like linebacker Jordyn Brooks, defensive tackle Zach Sieler, center Aaron Brewer and left tackle Patrick Paul as the youth comes into its own.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a way different way to lead, going in the NFL and being a rookie, but you\u2019ve got to earn your stripes early,\u201d Taaffe said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put your head down and not say a word and be humble. Once (it\u2019s) your time to talk, then that\u2019s when you use your voice.<\/p>\n \u201cThere can be leaders from the bottom to the top; it\u2019s not always the rah-rah guy. There\u2019s different ways of leading, and I\u2019m going to find out and I can\u2019t wait to learn from the leaders above.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Miami Dolphins draft pick Michael Taaffe and quarterback Quinn Ewers were teammates and close friends at Texas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3607,10363,80,154,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-270130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami-dolphins","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}