For Taylor, Coming Back Started with Comeback
GREEN BAY, Wis. – When the Green Bay Packers went to Lane Taylor with an offer of a renegotiated contract and a chance to compete for a starting job, the veteran guard could have said, “Thanks but no thanks,” and bet on himself.
Instead, he took the offer and the challenge.
“We looked at all of our options and felt like Green Bay is the best spot for me,” Taylor said after Thursday’s practice.
Taylor was due a $3.8 million base salary for 2020, the final year of a three-year, $16.5 million extension that was earned for his fine work at left guard. When Taylor suffered a torn biceps between Week 2 and Week 3 last season, it opened the door for rookie Elgton Jenkins. With the door closed at his old position, the renegotiated deal gives Taylor a meager $910,000 base salary and a shot to start at right guard as part of Green Bay’s offensive line competition.
“Lane’s a proven player in this league,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Thursday. “Obviously, it was unfortunate that he went down early last year, but he’s got a lot of starch under his belt. He’s been in the fire. He’s somebody you can rely on, so we want to keep all those kinds of players here. There’s obviously some limitations and restrictions on us from a financial part that we always have to look at, but we’re glad he’s here. We think he can help our football team and he’s off to a good start so far.”
Taylor’s comeback to Green Bay required a physical comeback. Taylor, a lineman with a thick upper body, had “literally zero” bicep when he started to rehab following surgery.
“I was just weak, you know?” he said. “You still have your tricep and your forearm and your shoulder and everything, but my bicep was completely flat. And as I was working out throughout the weeks, I could literally feel a little ball on my bicep get a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger until I finally had like a full bicep, like a normal looking one.”
Rehabbing from surgery isn’t fun but Taylor found some joy rebuilding his upper body. Quarantining back home in Texas, he said he turned his garage into a weight room. It took him years to get to where he was physically to start 2019. It took him months to get back.
“You have to put in a little more arms, which doesn’t suck, during a workout,” Taylor said. “Yeah, you really have to get after it. Keep training your arm, your muscles. It’s a little more than just doing curls. It’s doing all the awkward kind of lifting and holds and stuff like that.”
Including his first two starts in 2015 and two starts last season, Taylor has 49 career starts under his belt. The position switch has him back to his roots. He started 47 games at right guard at Oklahoma State, and his first NFL start came at Detroit. So, he quickly felt at home at his new position. Taylor is battling Billy Turner for the starting job; at the same time, Turner is battling Rick Wagner at right tackle.
“I’ve got many more miles, many more years to play,” Taylor said. “I just wanted to get back to my old self and work my tail off, be strong and get back to the level of play I want to be at.”
