The Los Angeles Chargers and New York Jets made a seemingly innocuous trade after their Sauce Gardner fire sale, Joe Hortiz parted ways with much-maligned cornerback Ja'Sir Taylor in exchange for a very late draft pick multiple years into the future.
On the outset, this didn't look like a very consequential move for either fanbase. The Jets were just acquiring some depth who wasn't in line to play a good chunk of snaps anyway, and the Chargers managed to get rid of a player who was not going to stick around for much longer in Taylor.
However, Chargers fans who spent the better part of the last half-decade watching the former Wake Forest product struggle with tackling in the open field were not overly thrilled with his overall performance.
What was a 17-17 tie in Week 13 against the Atlanta Falcons became a 24-17 lead for the visitors as Taylor had a chance to make a tackle on David Sills in the open field, yet showed both poor effort and form as Sills ran right by him. Look familiar, Chargers fans?
Former Chargers CB Ja'Sir Taylor keeps struggling mightily with Jets due to tackling
Taylor is only playing in this game because Jarvis Brownlee Jr, New York's normal starting nickel cornerback, was ruled out with an injury. Taylor needed to provide depth, but the gap in tackling quality between a very aggressive player like Brownlee and someone on the fringe of the roster like Taylor is the Grand Canyon.
The fact that Taylor didn't develop into a standout cornerback isn't anyone's fault due to his status as a sixth-round pick. However, the same staff that turned Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still into players had no interest in trying to work with him any further, and that should have been a warning sign.
The Chargers' defense is once again in the middle of a very productive season, even with some injuries on that side of the ball making it hard to replicate their 2024 success. Taylor was only a detriment to that success when he was on the field, and the Jets fanbase is now getting a crash course in exactly why that was the case.