Trent Taylor has heard the Wes Welker comparisons for most of his football career. He remembers college teammates not even calling him by his name during his freshman year. Instead, they called him 'Wes.'
"I don't think they knew my real name," Taylor said on Tuesday.
Taylor and Welker share similar heights and weights. The former, however, is entering his third NFL season while the latter spent 12 years as a pro and was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time first-team All-Pro in the process.
Taylor, a fifth-round draft pick out of Louisiana Tech in 2017, had an impressive rookie campaign when he caught 43 passes for 430 receiving yards with two touchdowns. Expectations were high as he entered his sophomore NFL season, but offseason back surgery changed things. Taylor still appeared in 14 games but caught just 26 passes for 215 yards with a touchdown while doing so.
Taylor is finally feeling healthy again and now finds himself being coached by Welker.
"It's a really good feeling to go out there and be explosive the way I know that I can, and get separation the way I know that I can," Taylor said. "It's been good lately."
Taylor was never worried about reinjuring himself last season. That wasn't what contributed to his sophomore slump. The receiver simply didn't have the strength he was used to having.
"What makes me successful is my quickness and my explosiveness," Taylor said. "Whenever that was taken away from me, in a sense, it really held me back from doing everything that I needed to do for the team to help us be successful."
Taylor now finds himself among a receiver group that is much deeper after the 49ers used two draft picks to add to the position. The competition will be fiercer than it was during his previous two offseasons.
Welker told reporters on Tuesday that Taylor has been fun to coach, and that's not just because of his skillset. The young receiver is intelligent, understands the game, and understands how to utilize space on the football field.
"He's been healthy this whole spring, which has really helped him, and he's been doing a really great job," Welker added. "I'm really excited to be coaching him, a guy that I really liked when he was coming out. To be able to coach him now, it's been pretty cool."
Taylor explained what it means to have Welker as his new receivers coach.
"We love having him around with just all of his experience that he has," he said. "Throughout his career, he's ran all the routes that we run in our offense; the same type of mindset. Just to be able to hear his thought process through it all, the way he looks at things, it's a different type of perspective that you wouldn't be able to hear from anybody else trying to coach it unless it was a guy like that.
"We're really fortunate to have him around, and I've already learned a lot, I feel like."
Despite having to deal with the years of comparisons, Taylor is ready to soak up knowledge from his new position coach.
"He did everything that all of us young receivers are trying to get to, so we'd be stupid not to listen to him," Taylor added.
