Rookie Taylor raising profile
Receiver coming off career game
Trent Taylor, who stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 181 pounds, has recently been mentioned in the same breath as two giants: Michael Jordan and Randy Moss.
OK, no one is suggesting the 49ers’ diminutive rookie wide receiver has reached such heights, but his performance in a 15-14 win over the Bears on Sunday raised his stature during what had been a quiet debut season.
Taylor, a fifth-round pick, had career bests in catches (six) and yards (92) while playing with a stomach illness so severe that he was still nursing chicken noodle soup at his locker Wednesday. Head coach Kyle Shanahan was among those to invoke Jordan’s off-his-sickbed 38-point performance in the 1997 NBA Finals on Taylor’s big day.
“The coaches were already mentioning that before the game,” Taylor said. “It was the kind of the standard for me to have a good game at that point. They already put the pressure on me.”
Meanwhile, Taylor has quickly earned the respect of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who declined this week to compare him to his former teammates, Patriots wideouts Julian Edel-
man and Danny Amendola. The comparison isn’t new: Taylor, Edelman and Amendola are all white, height-challenged, shifty slot receivers.
Garoppolo, who completed every pass he threw to Taylor, including a 33-yarder on the winning drive, seems to want Taylor to carve out his own niche: “He’s more like a Randy Moss,” Garoppolo cracked. “No, he’s a really good player, though.”
Taylor, who was sporting puffy eyes and a nasally voice this week, brightened when he heard the comparison.
“Yeah, he’s probably right,” Taylor said, smiling. “Me and Randy Moss have got a lot in common. He’s the guy I try to (emulate) the most, for sure.”
Shanahan never evoked Moss — a former Raider and 49er who ranks third in NFL history in career receiving yards — but he acknowledged in the offseason that Taylor was his favorite player in the draft after he led the nation in receiving yards (1,803) last year at Louisiana Tech.
Taylor had shown flashes of what attracted Shanahan, but he had just 26 catches for 239 yards entering Sunday’s game.
Of course, elevated quarterback play benefits pass-catchers and it’s likely no coincidence that Taylor’s breakthrough game coincided with Garoppolo’s starting debut with the team.
“He’s a master of his craft,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said of Taylor. “He does a great job of running his routes in the slot.”
Taylor does a particularly good job at running slants: 49ers quarterbacks are 13-for-13 for 160 yards and have a 143.6 passer rating when targeting Taylor on those routes this season, according to Pro Football Focus.
Taylor ran a deep slant on his career-long, 33-yard catch on 3rd-and-9 that set the stage for Robbie Gould’s 24-yard field goal with four seconds left in Chicago. It capped a day in which he was connected to another legendary name — his 92 yards were the most by a 49ers rookie since Terrell Owens in 1996 — despite feeling like he didn’t want to move.
“When I was on the sideline, I was just trying to stay still,” Taylor said. “Take deep breaths. Just try to be as calm as possible and not let my stomach start to turn. I just had to sit there and calm down. Make sure I got my breath back. Get ready for the next play.”
After gutting out four quarters, Taylor faced another significant challenge shortly after the game: turbulence.
“That was probably one of the longest plane rides of my life,” Taylor said. “But we survived. We made it through. … It was all worth it.” Briefly: Right tackle Trent Brown (shoulder) was the only player listed on the injury report for Sunday’s game at Houston. Shanahan said Brown, who is questionable, would be a gametime decision.