Former NFL Referee Chimes in on Jawaan Taylor’s Alignment in Week 1

Despite this, referees didn't appear to correct Taylor throughout the game nor penalize him for doing anything wrong. Speculation on X continued to unfold throughout the course of Thursday night, with many arguing that the 25-year-old tackle was consistently committing infractions. In a recent interview with CBS Sports, current league rules analyst and former referee Gene Steratore described Taylor as lining up "egregiously" off the line but also not getting reprimanded for it:

"In the real world and a normal Sunday, officials do prep and should prep for these kinds of matchups between the tackle and pass rusher," Steratore said. "You had Aidan Hutchinson primarily over that tackle -- he's a pretty good rusher -- and so pre-game, you're considering A.) the defensive end could try to crowd the line, and B.) the tackle may try to not be all the way up to the line. It's a pretty normal process. But if one of those happens, you call it right away. Usually there's a warning, you have a conversation with the huddle, a coach. But (Taylor) was egregiously off. ... Once (he) started getting away with it, he became even more off."

Another element of Taylor's game that received pushback on Thursday was how quickly he got into his set after the ball was snapped. This is something that got pointed out frequently last year when Orlando Brown Jr. was a member of the Chiefs, as he had seemingly impeccable timing in several of the team's games. According to Steratore, this is more of a secondary concern and requires a lot more context to discuss:

"Rarely do offensive linemen move at the exact time the center moves his snap," he explained. "It's usually a fraction of a second delay. If it's timed perfectly, it will feel fast to viewers. So officials can tend to lean away from that. There's an element of, my eyes might be tricking me a little. Am I going to sit here and shutter-speed, frame-by-frame officiate all night? But then again, where is that line? (Taylor) did beat the snap a few times. But there are nuances with that."

In the interview, Steratore mentioned that officials oftentimes have conversations with players about what they're expecting to see during games. It's unclear whether Taylor's alignment or jump will become a subject of discussion for future games, although multiple offensive line experts took to X to declare that things such as timing will continue to be no-call situations in terms of flags being thrown. Until Taylor starts drawing penalties or is forced to shift how far back his pre-snap stance is set, don't expect him to change too much.