Read the full transcript from S Michael Taaffe's media availability on October 26, 2026.
Have you kept either interception No. 1 or interception No. 2 yesterday – have you kept the ball or are you going to put it on the mantle or something?
Michael Taaffe: I don't have a mantle yet, but I have kept both the balls. I think it's cool to be grateful in these situations. You're only in the NFL for so long and every day I always try to be grateful for the time that we have to live out our dreams and get to play a kids sport for our profession and for our job. So I definitely keep those balls and cherish the good times and learn from the bad times.
On the pick yesterday, one thing that a former NFL safety, Adam Archuleta said on the CBS broadcast was that it looked as if you had studied that particular play on tape, which gave you the confidence to leave your guy with the anticipation Geno was gonna throw underneath a bit. Was that the case? Was that something you spotted on tape?
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, I think what I'll say is tape for me is what gives me confidence. You got six days to prepare and you got one day to go play. So those six days, I'm gonna do everything I can to prepare. And I'm a guy that really likes to lean on the tape to see what tendencies the other team gives us. And once game day comes, I let it rip. And so I think confidence comes from preparation and when you prepare 24/7, then you have that confidence. So I try to prepare like a champion every single day and try to help my teammates out by preparing and doing my one-eleventh at the best of my ability.
Tell us about the significance of the goal line stand. It was Sieler for the loss, Uche for the loss, Chop with the sack. What did that do for the defense, for the team? What did that tell you about the defense?
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, I think no one play is the reason that we win, ever in games. There's always a multitude of ways that you win or lose. But I went up to Sieler – and after really watching the tape, seeing Chop and Uche, I need to go up to them also – but I went to Sieler and said, "I think that was the game-changing play." And that shows you our leadership on defense, guys like Sieler and Brooks and Uche and all those guys and the culture of the team. Backs against the wall, you're on the one yard line. Seems like the Jets have all their momentum and Sieler wins his one-on-one and goes to make a play for a TFL on the one-yard line. That's really cool and I'm glad that I get to play behind those guys.
Three red zone stops that only accounted for three points for the Jets. We saw flashes of that against Minnesota, how in the red zone you guys just find a way to do it. What can you tell me about those moments where it's game on the line pretty much and you guys step up?
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, for sure. I appreciate that question. I think it goes to show that learning from your losses – Week 1, I think we were 0-for-4 in the red zone, if I'm not mistaken. We talked about winning in the red zone, winning on situations, winning third down, winning red zone, and that's what we needed to improve. And so instead of just being poor me's about not doing things right, we said, let's learn from this and correct it. And we're taking a lot of pride in not letting people get into the paint and getting stops in the red area. And so it shows to what you're trying to work at and being intentional.
Walk me through that interception, how you felt in that moment. It was just great to see it on this side of the world, I can only imagine how exciting it was.
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, for sure. Like I talked about earlier, saw it on tape, watch a lot of tape, know what they're trying to do in boot. And so that's what the concept was, a bootleg throw. And I think I just trusted my instincts, trusted my ability and wanted to go make a confident play.
What was your vantage point during the locker room celebration? Like, were you in the heart of all the water getting sprayed over?
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, I came in late because I was talking to the backup quarterback Cade Klubnik, we went to high school together, o pretty cool moment for us. But I walked in a little bit late. So me, I'm walking behind Coach Hafley and I guess everybody had water. I didn't know, that was my first win in the NFL. So I didn't know that's what you did when a coach got their first win. And so everybody starts throwing the water and I'm just jumping up and down with my helmet. It was rare for me because that was my first one. And also, I was not expecting that at all, but such a cool moment for us. We just gotta keep going.
Jeff mentioned after the game yesterday that there were a lot of uncharacteristic breakdowns in coverage. Were there communication issues or what did you see that that kind of led to some of those?
Michael Taaffe: We just got done watching tape as DB unit and it just comes down to doing your job, trusting your teammates. You can go look at every single different play, but at the end of the day, as long as we do our job, we'll be really good. We know that we're confident players, we're really good players. We say that we're the best in the world. And so if you're the best in the world, just go do your job and believe in everybody else. And you always got to look inside first. So you always thank the pass rush because they save our tails a lot. And then they do the same thing to us. They say thank you to us whenever we're doing our jobs. But as long as everybody's doing their job, we're going to be a really good defense.
I know for a while in training camp you told me you weren't on social media. Did you get on yesterday to kind of collect some flowers, did you peek?
Michael Taaffe: No, I think the same way that you don't go on social media when everybody's bashing your name, I think you got to do it when everybody's giving you the flowers because I think you're receiving the approval of man, you're receiving validation from something that's super shallow in my opinion. I believe that if you receive validation from somebody that's not always going to be there, that's not constant, that's not content, then you'll never be satisfied and you'll always be chasing. So I've always been on Instagram, just because I feel like Instagram as a 23 year old, you got to at least be on that. But I'm still not on X, I still don't have the app on my phone. And I think that's been really good for my confidence this year because I did have it last year. And going into the NFL draft, I did have it. And we always talked about getting ready for the combine, I'm like, don't go on it. But it was just so – that temptation was like, 'all right, let's see where they think I'm going to go in the draft.' And so it put me in a weird space, mind space. And so I'm so happy that I don't have it right now because I seek my identity through Christ. And that's where I feel good about that right now.
Speaking about confidence, first win as a rookie in the NFL, how does this set you up for another divisional rival just coming up on Sunday and the rest of the season? 11 more games to play.
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, for sure. Well, first, I think the win was awesome. I think it was really cool for us. So fun to see all of our hard work come to fruition. But I gotta credit our coaching staff and the leaders on the team because today it felt like every other Monday. We're not going to change, we're not going to be somebody different. We're going to look at how we need to improve and we're going to say good job about the plays that we did well on. And so I thought that was really cool because I've been on other teams that aren't like that. Sometimes the problems are masked by the result. And so they did a really good job today of not masking the problems just because we got a win and showing, hey, we need to get better. And in order to win against New England next week, we got to do things to correct. And so I think they did a really good job with that.
I want to follow up on something you just said about trusting that your teammates are going to be in the right spot. The mental component that goes into knowing that your teammate's going to handle their assignment, especially – Hafley mentioned sometimes with young guys, you're in situations that maybe you haven't been in before. What's that been like for you guys as a secondary kind of trusting each other and not abandoning what your assignment is?
Michael Taaffe: Yeah, that's a great question. Me and Jacob had a play yesterday that I'll keep to us, but I told him, "dude, I'm so happy that I was able to trust you." And you give me that confidence to trust you because of who you are and how reliable he is as a player and a person. But in my past, like talking to my Texas coaches, my one job that I needed to correct was doing my job. And it's not ill intent because you're just trying to go make a play for your team. Like you want to make that play so your team can get off the field. But if you're trying to be the guy that is Superman, then the average Michael Taaffe isn't going to be as good as he thinks he is. So I think it's all across the board, but always looking at the person in the mirror first is like – as long as you do your job and you trust the other 10 others, I got really good teammates, really good players on our team that if I just do my job, do my one-eleventh, we're going to be a pretty good defense. I got to trust that and these guys around me are giving me that belief.
