Michael Taaffe is a 6 ft, 189-pound safety from the University of Texas. He spent all 5 years of his collegiate career at Texas. He is from Austin, Texas, and attended Westlake HS. He was named first-team all-district his senior year and won back-to-back state titles in his junior and senior years. He chose to walk on at Texas. He earned a scholarship at the end of his redshirt freshman year. While at Texas, he won the Wuerffel trophy this past year. He was also a 2025 AFCA All-American First Team, a 2025 All-SEC first team, according to coaches, a second team according to AP, and a PFF All-American first team in 2024. He has a minor injury history, including surgery for a broken thumb that required him to miss a couple of games last year.
Taaffe is a strong safety who plays in the box with good coverage skills. He is a good athlete who is undersized but has a good frame for his position. Taaffe is good in coverage, reads the field, and puts himself in position to make plays. He has a good trigger when attacking the football and has fluid hips. I also question his physicality as he needs to improve his tackling. He struggles in the open field with wrapping up and overpursuing, which causes him to take the wrong angles. His size also causes him to struggle in run support when in the box. His high football IQ and ability to read the field will make up for his poor physicality.
Scheme Fit and Team Fit:
He fits a team that runs a lot of heavy zone coverage defense with a lot of 2-high safeties. His team fits are the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
NFL Player Comp: Xavier Watts
Both show good coverage skills and the ability to play in the box.
Projection: Backup/Special Teamer
Taaffe projects as a backup player in the NFL but could contribute on special teams.
Grade and Round Projection:
I gave him a grade of 3.9 and projected him to go rounds 2-3.
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