The silver Chrysler Sebring glinted when the sun kissed the parking lot in Temple, Texas, sitting by its lonesome. Scott Stewart always saw it docked by Temple High’s highest practice field during the summer of 2020, tucked away from any lights or eyes passing on the main road, and assumed the bucket was broken down.
The car belonged to 15-year-old Temple linebacker Taurean York. So Stewart, then Temple High’s head coach, asked York if the Sebring was having trouble. It was. But the car was always there, York explained, because he was training up on that field by himself each morning before summer workouts.
“Oh, (expletive), man,” Stewart told York, who was a linebacker at Temple. “I’m usually the first one here.”
“You’re not always the first one here,” York replied, grinning.
He drove the Sebring until the wheels fell off — literally, because someone wound up crashing into it in the school parking lot — and ran until his legs threatened to fall off those mornings, too. Sprints, dawn after dawn. York’s hip flexor flared up, and Stewart pleaded with him to stop running. The kid said he couldn’t. Not wouldn’t, but couldn’t. So Stewart called his mother to stop him from coming to the field early.
“Look, I need your support on this,” Stewart told Rebecca York, “and if I need to come whoop his butt at his house, I’ll do it.”
“Coach, you have no idea,” Rebecca responded, as Stewart remembered. “He does 538 sit-ups before he even comes to you guys.”
On April 23, 2018, a seventh-grade teammate won a Most Valuable Player award instead of York, and he decided then and there that he was going to dedicate his life to becoming a professional football player. In the eight years since, pure defiance has become sustenance. He is small for a linebacker, weighing 226 pounds and standing 2 inches under 6 feet.. Coaches have whispered about those 2 inches in recruiting meetings and draft rooms alike, touting the IQ but wishing he were just a little longer, just a little more athletic.
Alex Bauman #87 of the Miami Hurricanes runs with the ball while being tackled by Taurean York #21 and Rylan Kennedy #15 of the Texas A&M Aggies in the second quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff First Round Game at Kyle Field on Dec. 20, 2025 in College Station, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Alex Bauman #87 of the Miami Hurricanes runs with the ball while being tackled by Taurean York #21 and Rylan Kennedy #15 of the Texas A&M Aggies in the second quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff First Round Game at Kyle Field on Dec. 20, 2025 in College Station, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
York has weaponized those 2 inches, in turn, into a kind of white-hot lava that his peers at Temple High and Texas A&M have never quite seen before.
“It is not a ‘Oh my God, I’m going to prove the world wrong,’” said Stewart, trying to explain York. “It is like — ‘I want to personify what you can’t measure.’”
Can a young man crack an NFL roster via sheer force of will? Denver is about to find out. York walked in as a three-star recruit at Texas A&M in 2023, seized a starting job as a true freshman in fall camp, started 39 straight games at inside linebacker over three seasons, and waited with family April 26 to hear his name called on Day 3 of the NFL Draft. And waited. And waited. And wiped tears from the corners of his eyes, pupils glassy, after 257 names went by and York agreed to an undrafted free-agent deal with the Broncos.
They were not quite happy tears.
“Honestly, it sucks to see a lot of guys get picked that I know I’m better than,” York told The Denver Post. “I’m going to keep it 100 with you. I keep things very transparent. But that’s not up to my decision. The draft’s out of my control.
“But what is in my control is how I respond, and how I work my tail off to go earn a job, and ultimately take a job.”
The bear has been poked. The measurables have defined York’s life with none of his own choice in the matter. Again. He is coming to Denver this weekend for rookie minicamp — and the coming months — to outrun those measurables. Again.
“There’szerodoubt in my mind that he’ll play in the NFL,” former A&M linebackers coach Jay Bateman said, now Kentucky’s defensive coordinator. “There’s zero doubt. I think the Broncos probably got a steal.”
Eventually, Rebecca York told Stewart why her son did exactly 538 sit-ups every morning. He’d once gone to a camp in San Antonio early in his Temple career to try and create recruiting exposure. A collegiate linebackers coach, there to evaluate talent, patted York’s belly.
“You’re a little fluffy,” the coach told York, as Stewart tells it, “to be a Division I linebacker.”
Every recruit at that camp wore a number on their clothes to identify themselves. York was No. 538.
“So, by God, he did 538 sit-ups,” Stewart said. “And not because he was self-conscious.Because — ‘Screw you. Watch this.’”
No shortcuts, no flash
A day after York went undrafted and a video of his bittersweet Broncos signing went semi-viral, The Denver Post reached out to York to ask if he wanted to talk about his story.
“let’s (sic) do it,” York texted. “the world needs to know what I’m bringing to Denver.”
Texas A&M's Taurean York runs the 40 yard dash during the Texas A&M football pro day Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Texas A&M’s Taurean York runs the 40 yard dash during the Texas A&M football pro day Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
On a 30-minute call that followed, York rattled off most every dot on his personal resume, pieces of a football life that do little to solve the puzzle of how an SEC starting linebacker and two-time captain fell undrafted. He described this game as his “calling.” He called himself a “football savant.” He is quick to recount, unprompted, that he was named a starter at A&M as a 17-year-old freshman on the sixth day of his first training camp. He is quick to recount, unprompted, that he’s called defensive plays for every single game of his career at every single level he’s played.
He is also quick to recount the amorphous mass of faces that have deemed his size simply not enough. And this, he and others in his life know, is the ultimate reason he’s consistently slipped through the cracks.
“It’s definitelyonlythe size,” York said. “It’s not character. It’s not off-the-field issues. It’s not injuries. It’s not leadership, or lack of smarts. It’s solely the (size). I have plays I wish I could get back, but so does every prospect in the NFL Draft and in the NFL currently. And so, I just laugh, because it’s just like, really, you’re still doing this? After seven years of me showing you that I played at the highest level …”
His words crashed together, not waiting for one to leave before the next arrived.
“…6A high school football is the highest classification in Texas,” York continued. “Went against the best, did it in high school. Four years, scot-free on the injury slate, three-year captain, superlative awards. Go to the SEC, they said I couldn’t do it again. 17 years old, I did it again. Took a dude’s job, stayed injury-free, two-time captain, no off-the-field issues. High-character guy.
“They try and do it to me again, now. What do you think I’m going to go do? I’m going to do it again.”
A few minutes in, asked about his family, York turned to those sitting nearby for a question.
“What city did Grandma Mary move from, in Mexico?” York asked.
He sounds it out slowly: El Salitrillo, Aguascalientes, a village so tiny that online population services place the total number of inhabitants at less than 60. His is a blue-collar family, York said. Here, his voice swells.
Fifty-six years ago, York’s great-uncles and great-grandfather immigrated from Mexico to Temple, got jobs and a house and documentation for their family, then returned to Aguascalientes on Christmas Day with a U-Haul. Eight children, including York’s grandmother Rosalinda Rodriguez, packed up their belongings. They did not say goodbye to neighbors. They exchanged a few hugs, left for the United States, and spent weeknight evenings in Temple learning English and getting certifications in after-hours classes at their local elementary school.
No shortcuts, York said.
Former Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York tackles Texas quarterback Arch Manning, the nephew of former Broncos great Peyton Manning. (Photo courtesy of Aggie Football)
Former Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York tackles Texas quarterback Arch Manning, the nephew of former Broncos great Peyton Manning. (Photo courtesy of Aggie Football)
“We’re living the American dream, man,” he said.
York’s mother, Rebecca, carries their pride in her DNA and speaks of any slight against her son as if it were a slight against her as a mother. York’s father, Robert, does not carry their DNA, but has spent the last 20 years of his life working a day job at the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood military base and working a night job at his own barbershop. His dad, York says, sleeps in his work clothes and wakes up at 4 a.m.
“That’s all I know, bruh,” York says. “I’m not no flashy person. I never needed the flash. I never needed other people’s verification of myself. Like, I know what I have. And you can’t shake me.”
Before football, York’s first love was trains. His grandmother Rosalinda’s house sat a short distance away from the train station in Temple, and he grew up hearing their horns. When he was little, he’d tote around a backpack filled with toys from “Thomas the Tank Engine.”
Her son liked trains, Rebecca said, because they are loud, and big, and strong. Undeniable.
‘I’ve never sat on the bench before’
Throughout the pre-draft process, York’s agent told him that NFL evaluators had said he’d be a top-100 pick if his physical measurables were different. He finished with at least 70 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss in each of his three seasons at Texas A&M, and was graded by Pro Football Focus as one of the five best starting-level linebackers in the FBS in pass coverage in 2025.
But he is not very long or very tall. By Relative Athletic Score, which measures prospects’ pre-draft testing against every other prospect at their position since 1987, York is graded a 0.66 out of 10 for height. Charles Davis, an analyst for NFL Network, told The Post he thought York’s “sawed-off frame” might have been a factor in him going undrafted.
“Which is cool,” York said.
His tone said it was not.
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 25: Linebacker Taurean York #21 of the Texas A&M Aggies poses for a photo after a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on October 25, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images)
Linebacker Taurean York #21 of the Texas A&M Aggies poses for a photo after a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on Oct. 25, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images)
On Day 3 of the draft, York sat to watch picks come across the screen and began a mental analysis of each name called that wasn’t his.This guy will make it. This guy might not be in the league in five years. Six picks before the end of the draft, the Philadelphia Eagles took International Player Pathway Program prospect Uar Bernard, a 306-pound native Nigerian who posted some of the most athletic pre-draft testing of all time but had never played a snap of professional football.
It was a pick, in every way, representing the direct antithesis of York’s profile. He knows it.
“Buddy might be the best thing from Nigeria,” York said, “but he didn’t play 39 straight games in the SEC.”
No. 538 can now become No. 257-and-counting in Denver. York’s belly still burns from that coach that patted it in San Antonio. Colleges that came through Temple during his high school career, Stewart said, would always ask if a young York was going to grow. Eventually, when a recruiter from Ohio State came to campus, Stewart stuck York in a separate room and had him listen over the office speaker to understand the truth: the Buckeyes had him as a lower-tier recruit simply because of his frame.
York accepted that. He had no choice but to. His response lay in his roots, growing up learning about his mother’s family and seeing his father work daily on four hours of sleep a night. As a sophomore at Temple, he texted Stewart at midnight repeatedly after Friday night games to ask where the game film was. Eventually, Stewart called his video assistant and asked him to send the tape directly to York once he finished uploading it to Hudl.
To do that, the assistant said, he’d have to label York as a coach.
“I said, ‘Then put him as a coach on there!’” Stewart recounted. “I started getting my ass chewed (out) by a sophomore in high school.”
When York first arrived at Texas A&M, coaches told him their vision for him was to be a third- or fourth-year starter, according to former Aggies receiver Micah Tease. Instead, York started running with the ones three months into arriving on campus. And York intends to do the same in Denver.
Borderline blasphemous, for an undrafted rookie. The leap from even the SEC to the NFL is immeasurable for a player already lacking in measurables. The Broncos have presumptive starters Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad locked in on multi-year deals.
York just knows nothing else.
“My entire career, I’ve started every game,” York said. “And I don’t plan on not starting. It’s not like — in a negative way to the other guys. But that’s all I know is, I’ve never sat on the bench before. Like, that’s foreign territory to me. So, as soon as I get up there in Denver, man, it’s go time.”
High football IQ
Tease thinks York can pull it off, for one, because of the apple.
Tease, a former receiver at Texas A&M who’s since transferred to Tulsa, moved in with York in 2024. Quickly, Tease noticed York did not waste any type of time. At night, Tease recounted, York would peel off a piece of paper towel and set out an apple and a bagel neatly on the counter, so it’d be ready for him to run out the door the next morning.
“He was somewhat, like, psychotic with his preparation,” Tease said.
When Tease would get burned out on watching receivers’ film, he’d sit with York and watch him break down defensive tape. The way that some musicians can innately pick up a rhythm, Stewart opined, is the way that concepts in football click in York’s brain. At Temple High, York had the reins to call out stunts for the defensive line and coverage checks for the secondary. At Texas A&M, later, York would flip blitzes and override stunts if he recognized pass formations.
Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York went undrafted after starting three straight years for the Aggies, and could be a draft 'steal' for the Broncos. (Photo courtesy of Aggie Football)
Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York went undrafted after starting three straight years for the Aggies, and could be a draft ‘steal’ for the Broncos. (Photo courtesy of Aggie Football)
In the Aggies’ meeting room, former linebackers coach Bateman told The Post that he’d sometimes tell every other linebacker to think about “good-looking girls in your class” so he could relay a few concepts to York.
“I would tell people all the time, ‘I’m teaching a 300 or 400-level college course, right?’” Bateman recalled. “But when he’s in there, and him and I are talking, man, it’s graduate-level.’”
On several third downs in a 49-25 October win over LSU, Texas A&M didn’t even call a defense and simply relied on York to call different blitzes based on the positioning of the offensive line. In a 41-40 win over Notre Dame earlier in the year, Bateman said, York would point at the sky or point at the ground pre-snap to indicate pass or run solely based on how Fighting Irish quarterback CJ Carr was standing. On one third-and-goal at the start of that second quarter, Carr checked a call at the line of scrimmage; York looked and pointed to his left at Notre Dame receiver Malachi Fields, isolated against A&M cornerback Will Lee III.
Carr pivoted on the snap, fired a slant to Fields, and Lee broke up the pass.
“The things that we were able to do on defense with him…are uncommon,” Bateman said. “And I think they’ll figure that out pretty quickly in Denver.”
York’s plan, Rebecca said, was always to enter the draft after three seasons at A&M. But multiple NFL scouts in the pre-draft process told York they hadn’t done much research on him. Bateman said he believed evaluators anticipated York would stay for a fourth season with the Aggies, and as such, didn’t have a full background.
The Broncos, however, were ahead of the curve, Bateman indicated. York said he heard consistently from Broncos national scout Deon Randall in the pre-draft process, and Bateman said Denver evaluators spent plenty of time on the phone questioning him about York.
“I just got a sense that they valued what he was,” Bateman said. “Like, they valued his process and his intelligence, his ability to run the room.”
Despite a wider view that Denver needed an inside linebacker this draft, the Broncos internally felt “really good” about Singleton and Strnad as starters and didn’t want to force an ILB pick, assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt said. The club still wound up with Buffalo’s Red Murdock at No. 257, and has youngsters Levelle Bailey, Jordan Turner, and Karene Reid returning. Still, there’s as much opportunity for York to find a roster spot at ILB as anywhere on a loaded Broncos roster, especially after Denver cut veteran Dre Greenlaw during free agency.
It was easy enough to push York’s buttons at A&M, Bateman recalled. The linebackers coach would toss out jabs during game weeks when he could, sprinkles of lighter fluid atop an inferno.
Before they played Texas, Bateman would ask York: Did the Longhorns offer you?
Before they played Auburn, where York’s former Aggies coach, DJ Durkin, became the defensive coordinator, Bateman would ask York: Did Durkin offer to bring you with him?
“I had to be careful, now,” Bateman chuckled.
York needs none of that, now, entering rookie minicamp this weekend. Two days after he agreed to terms with the Broncos, York was sitting at home, complaining to his mother Rebecca that he was wasting time. Idle. Antsy. Not moving. He wanted the film. He wanted the playbook.
He wants a job, against the odds created for him.
“Don’t be fooled by the undrafted label,” York said, when asked for hi message to the Broncos’ fanbase. “OK? My resume, my history, is public knowledge. It’s out there.
“If you have a question if I can play or not,” he continued, “just go look my name up.”
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.