I AM THE ONE

"I'm not worth 8 Mill"

If you haven't already heard, Jason Taylor was on the Junkies on WFJK this morning and offered a fairly scathing assessment of his own season, concluding with this:

"I'm a realist. You can tell me the truth, and I'm fine with that. Because at the end of the day, most of us know the truth and some times some guys are just afraid to admit it, but I'm not worth 8 million dollars....You know what, I'll tell you, I may not be worth 8 million dollars, but I know one thing, this dog can still hunt. This dog can still hunt. Put me in the right situation, the right position and I'll hunt all day."

He was also asked if he'd be surprised if ties were severed between him and the Skins in the offseason.

"Would I be surprised? No. If I'm not back, I wouldn't be surprised," he said, as the $8 million figure was brought up. "And I'm not worth it," he said, "so I would not be surprised at all."

But when asked whether there were one-on-one matchups he hasn't won this year, he seemed less critical of himself.

"Are there times? Yes," he said. "And there's been times throughout 11 years that yes, I've not beaten one-on-ones, because that other guy does get paid, too, he's gonna win one-on-ones, too. But there hasn't been as many as people think. If people really put the tape on and watched defensively the situations we get ourselves in, you know there's a lot that goes into getting after quarterbacks."

Earlier, he discussed the injuries that have sidetracked both him and his team, saying that he probably should have sat out more time with his leg issue but that he was being "hard-headed."

"Number one, every team is hurt," he said. "That's a fact, every team is hurt. Now, there's a difference between stating a fact and issuing yourself an excuse. So if you state a fact and say, 'We're a banged-up team, we've got a lot of guys hurt,' then that's a fact. If you start using that as a crutch or an excuse, that's kind of when it becomes a problem. You asked me in particular what my problem is. Do I think I'm too old? No. Have I been hurt? Yes, I've been hurt. I've had two surgeries in the last two months, and haven't had but one in 11 years. But at the end of the day, I'll be the first to tell you, I stink right now. I need to play better. I need to get comfortable and play better."

Two more notable bits. His "put me in the right position" thing smacked of dissatisfaction at his role, and the Junkies followed up with a question about that, asking whether this was an ideal system for his skills.

"I'm not here to complain," he said. "I'm just a player, and this is the scheme, and I've got to fit into it and find a way to make me successful in it. It's not the ideal, if I had my druthers, but it is what it is. It's fine."

And he was asked about the rumors about Jim Zorn's job security.

"I've never seen a situation where a first-year coach would be worried about his job with seven wins," he said. "I understand that things are done differently up here....[but] I wouldn't expect it. I've heard on the radio some people say they wouldn't be surprised if it happened or they expect it to happen, but that's tough. And it's tough for Coach Zorn to have to worry about that at this point right now...to have to worry about your job in your first year when you've won seven games. And I understand we were 6-2 and we should be a lot better off, however, that's still tough working conditions for him."