Dolphins legend Jason Taylor makes surprising Jets admission after former rival drafts son

Jason Taylor spent most of his Hall of Fame career as a Dolphins defensive end terrorizing Jets quarterbacks and fans. So it was strange to say the least in 2010, when found himself leading “J-E-T-S” chants as he tried to help a team he once loved to hate make it back to the Super Bowl.

Friday night, for the first time in nearly 15 years, Taylor broke out that chant once again. It was still a little weird, but as he wiped the tears from his face and tried, unsuccessfully, to mask the emotion in his voice, it somehow felt perfect.

“You really can’t put it into words,” Taylor said. “I mean, it’s – I’m a very emotional guy when it comes to my kids.”

And in the moments after the Jets selected LSU tight end Mason Taylor with the No. 42 pick in the second round of the NFL Draft, there were none of those conflicting emotions that had nagged Jason Taylor the first time he made the switch a decade and a half ago. Just pure joy for his son.

“I was crying and overcome with joy for him,” Jason Taylor said. “It’s the culmination of years and years of work. He has been around the game a long time, from when I played to his own journey.”

Reminders of both those journeys surfaced on social media in the moments after the Jets selected Mason Taylor. About 30 minutes after Mason got the life-changing phone call from Florham Park, Jason said he already had been shown multiple photos of his kids decked out in Jets gear during that lone season in New Jersey. In one photo that circulated on social media, a six-year-old Mason is in the center of the frame, grin on his face, Jets hat on his head as he walks toward the camera, a few steps ahead of his father.

It was a fitting image because Mason says he never viewed his father’s first-ballot Hall-of-Fame legacy – and all the comparisons and expectations projected onto him because of it – that come with it – as a burden.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Mason Taylor said. “I mean, I love it. He’s my motivator. He’s the guy I look up to, so people saying I’m in his shadow, that really doesn’t affect me. I’m doing hard work just like he did. He was lowly recruited out of high school and college, and I’ve just seen the way he’s done things and approached his business every single day … and hopefully have the same outcome he did in his career.”

Emulating the approach that drove Jason Taylor for 15 NFL seasons is not a bad choice because it helped him go from a third-round pick out of Akron to one of the most dominant players in NFL history – his 139.5 sacks are seventh most on the all-time list. He’s a Miami legend for what he did in a Dolphins uniform for 13 seasons. And when he retired in 2011, after returning to South Florida, he stayed to raise his kids and coach Mason and his older brother on the defensive staff of their high school football team. And it’s where he remains: he has been the defensive line coach at the University of Miami since 2023 after joining the staff a year earlier.

Jason Taylor is Miami, which is why it was surprising that he ever joined the Jets in the first place. He was never shy about sharing his disdain for the Jets fans during his days with the Dolphins. And it led to a somewhat awkward start to his tenure here.

“The fans took a few weeks to come around,” Taylor admitted, recounting the early-season moment when he won them over: a Week 2 sack of Tom Brady in a win over the Patriots in the first Jets regular season home game at what was then known as New Meadowlands Stadium.

“They chanted my name,” Taylor said. “I thought I’d never hear it without a profanity attached at the end of it. It was awesome.”

And this fall, when Jets fans are cheering another Taylor from Miami, he’ll be right by their side – even if they’re playing the Dolphins.

“Yes, I do identify with the franchise and have great history in [Miami] – I love, love, love the Miami Dolphins,” Jason said. “But as you know, this is not my first rodeo being on the other side of the tracks. So I’ve got to say it: ‘J-E-T-S.’ Jets. Jets. Jets.”

Even more surprising than hearing Jason Taylor doing a J-E-T-S or Jets fans chanting his name without an expletive? Hearing the man himself admit Friday night that his one season with the Jets brought him something he never got in all those years with the Dolphins.

“Listen, my greatest team success was in New York,” he said. “In a team game filled with individual achievements – still, team results was always what I was chasing. So making it the AFC Championship game back in 2010 – 2011 playoffs was amazing.”

The Dolphins made it to the playoffs in each of Jason’s first five NFL seasons but never won multiple games in a single postseason and failed to get past the divisional round. He won his final playoff game with the Dolphins in 2000 – Miami hasn’t won a playoff game since. And when he suited up for his first Jets playoff game at the end of the 2010 season, he had waited nine years between postseason appearances. Two weeks and two playoff wins later, he was playing in his first AFC Championship game at age 36.

We all know what happened next so we’re going fast-forward through the recap: the Jets lost to the Steelers; Mark Sanchez had a rough (but memorable) Thanksgiving; Geno Smith’s jaw got to meet a teammates fist; the fourth quarter in Buffalo turned Ryan Fitzpatrick’s arm into a pumpkin; Sam Darnold got mono and Adam Gase; Zach Wilson didn’t let the defense down in New England; Aaron Rodgers played four snaps and took a nice trip to Egypt … and we’re back to Friday night, when a reporter points out to Jason Taylor that his son’s new team hasn’t been to the playoffs since he was on the roster.

“Don’t start,” Jason said, laughing. “I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that, but – is that right? Well, let’s change that. Let’s go. Let’s go.”

A day earlier, Jason Taylor might have chuckled and shrugged when he learned the true scope of the Jets misfortune since he headed back to South Florida. And he might not have admitted publicly to one of the finest moments of his career coming in a green and white uniform. But everything is different now, because Mason is about to don those same colors and write a new story for himself and this franchise.

“It means everything,” Jason said. “To me as a father, this is his moment in time and I’m just – the sun has set on my career and I’m done and it’s awesome to be able to sit back and watch him. But for him to walk through the same facility and use the same locker rooms and walk that same path that I took, it’s humbling. You’re trying to make me cry again. I’m not going to do it. I’m fighting it. I can’t –”

He lost the fight, but Jason finished his point as he wiped the tears from his face.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “We’ve really been blessed. And he’s earned it, now he’s got to keep going.”

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Andy Vasquez may be reached at avasquez@njadvancemedia.com.