DENVER — The Patriots went from worst to first this season. Defensive sort out Leonard Taylor III went from worst to first in-season.
Taylor turned a Patriots legend within the crew’s AFC Championship Game win over the Broncos when he elevated off the bottom and blocked a game-tying 45-yard field-goal try from Will Lutz with 4:46 left in regulation.
“All I do know is, we seen the ball transfer after which we acquired some knockback. Subsequent factor I do know, I simply jumped within the air and I acquired a style of the ball,” Taylor stated.
“Lenny T,” as head coach Mike Vrabel calls him, was waived by the lowly Jets on Oct. 14. The Patriots signed him to their observe squad two days later. Two months later, Taylor earned his first alternative, and the Patriots haven’t been capable of take him off the sphere since. He stays on the Patriots’ observe squad however was a game-day elevation for Sunday’s AFC title sport.
After Taylor’s block, the Broncos possessed the ball only one extra time in a drive that ended with an interception from cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
“We simply lined up and knocked the person in entrance of us over,” Taylor stated of his blocked kick. “That’s just about it. Take his face off, for actual.”
Taylor has now been elevated off the observe squad in 5 consecutive video games. He’s appeared in six video games complete with the Patriots this season after enjoying in simply two video games with the Jets earlier than being reduce.
The second-year professional joined the Jets in 2024 as an undrafted free agent out of the College of Miami. He was a daily contributor final season however misplaced favor with the Jets underneath new head coach Aaron Glenn.
“They didn’t need me,” Taylor stated of the Jets. “Any individual else will. I’m simply gonna play ball on the finish of the day.”
Taylor had time to replicate on his journey, going from a crew that completed the 2025 season 3-14 to now enjoying in Tremendous Bowl LX.
“I went from a shedding crew to a Tremendous Bowl crew,” Taylor stated. “So it’s fairly nice. It’s fairly wonderful simply realizing that every one the exhausting work I put in, it’s lastly being observed. It’s being seen.”
