‘One of the safeties that I look up to the most’—An NFL Pro Bowler is the blueprint one Miami Dolphins rookie wants to follow
Miami Dolphins rookie safety Michael Taaffe reveals one NFL safety he looks up to the most.
Having role models is an important piece of every young person’s experiences. Be that in life or on the football field. For Miami Dolphins rookie safety Michael Taaffe, he’s hoping one of his can lay the blueprint for how Taaffe’s career in South Florida can unfold.
Ahead of the final weekend before the regular season, Taaffe was one of the Miami Dolphins players who met with the South Florida media. And during his chat, Taaffe revealed one such name he’s looking at as he tries to blaze his own trail in the pros.
Miami Dolphins rookie safety Michael Taaffe reveals which NFL Pro Bowler he looks up to most
“What I always remind myself every single day is if I can do my job really, really well, then all those other things will take care of itself. If you just go run down really, really fast and know what you’re looking at the right time, know where your feet are at the right time, then you’ll be able to play this game…at a really high level.
Jessie Bates, I think he’s one of the top dawgs and he’s one of the safeties that I look up to the most and he’s always preached that to me because he’s kind of a little bit similar frame when he came in as a rookie. So I really, really like him.”
— Miami Dolphins rookie safety Michael Taaffe
Bates was drafted 54th overall by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2018 and has gone on to have a highly successful NFL career. Going into Year 9, Bates has logged 27 career interceptions between five years with the Bengals and the last three with the Atlanta Falcons. As a draft prospect in 2018, Bates measured in at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds and ran a 4.50 40-yard dash.
Bates weighed 10 pounds heavier than Taaffe in the pre-draft process and offers significantly more length than Taaffe. His wingspan measured approximately 2.5″ wider. But the tale of the tape side by side beyond that has plenty of similarities.
Jessie Bates vs. Michael Taaffe Pre-Draft
| Test | Jessie Bates (2018) | Michael Taaffe (2016) |
| Height: | 6000 | 5117 |
| Weight: | 200 lbs | 190 lbs |
| Wingspan: | 75.38″ | 72.75″ |
| 40-yard dash: | 4.50 seconds | 4.50 seconds |
| 10-yard split: | 1.57 seconds | 1.54 seconds |
| Vertical jump: | 35.50″ | 34.50″ |
| Broad jump: | 9’09” | 10’02” |
| 3-cone drill: | 6.78 seconds | 6.80 seconds |
| Short shuttle: | 4.25 seconds | 4.15 seconds |
This feels like a great foundation for what Taaffe can start to build his NFL game around. The weight and wingspan discrepancies will create a slimmer margin for error as a tackler. But stylistically, the parallels to their athletic profiles makes Bates more than reasonable as someone to study and draw from.
Should Taaffe be successful in replicating anything near what Bates has been able to accomplish in his NFL career, it’d be quite the win for the Miami Dolphins.
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