Before Miami Dolphins draft pick Michael Taaffe and quarterback Quinn Ewers were teammates and close friends at Texas, Taaffe had the best day of his high school football career against Ewers.
Taaffe, who was on the way to play for Texas as a walk-on safety, intercepted Ewers, the No. 1 recruit in the nation, twice in a state championship game, as Taaffe’s Southlake High team defeated Ewers’ Westlake Carroll squad for Texas’ Class 6A title in 2020.
One of them was a highlight-reel, one-handed snag, where Taaffe sat underneath a route in zone coverage and elevated to pull it down with his right hand high above him.
“At the time, that was probably the coolest moment in my life because it was a “SportsCenter” Top 10, and No. 2 was Aaron Rodgers,” Taaffe said. “No. 1 was little Michael Taaffe, walk-on at University of Texas. So pretty cool to know that you jumped over ‘A-Rod’ on “SportsCenter” Top 10.”
The “at the time” does a lot in Taaffe’s sentence. He’s established several more “coolest moments” in his time with the Longhorns, with Ewers alongside him for most of them. Included among them, earning his scholarship at the end of his redshirt freshman season in 2022 and then later being a second-team All-American as a junior in 2024 and first-team All-SEC selection last season.
Maybe the newest coolest moment of his life occurred last Saturday, when Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley came calling to let him know he was Miami’s selection with the 158th pick, a fifth-round choice.
“Within two minutes of getting announced, Quinn FaceTimed me, and I got to talk to him,” Taaffe said. “He was just so fired up. His girlfriend and my girlfriend are really close also, so I think she’s just as happy.
“We played each other in the state championship game my senior year against each other, and then we came together at Texas to play together, and now I guess we’re going to be teammates again. Man, it’s so awesome. Who would have thought when we went out there as captains in the state championship game that it would turn into teammates in the NFL in Miami? So, pretty awesome.”
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That wasn’t it for Taaffe. His selection by the Dolphins made him one of three Longhorns in Miami’s 2026 class, and that was a year after the team drafted Ewers in the seventh round. Before Taaffe, it was edge rusher and linebacker Trey Moore in the fourth round. After them, offensive guard DJ Campbell was selected in the sixth round.
Taaffe had 222 tackles, seven interceptions, 21 pass breakups and three sacks over three seasons as a starter and another as a rotational defender. All his college accolades and his draft position, still undersized as a 6-foot, 190-pound safety, are even more remarkable considering he started that journey walking on to the team.
“How I did it, I never once told myself I was going to go be an All-American and all these accolades,” Taaffe said. “I just cared about the team. When I got there, I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to make an impact for the University of Texas,’ and that’s what I wanted to do.
“It was never really about myself, and once I got that opportunity, it was like, ‘Wow, look what putting the University of Texas first, putting your team first, putting your teammates first can really get you.’ ”
Putting the team first showed results. Texas went from 5-7 when Taaffe and the core he was a part of were freshmen, they then reeled off three consecutive 10-win seasons, a conference championship game and two College Football Playoff semifinal appearances.
“I was proud of what we were able to do at Texas, but it all started off the field with the ability to be a leader in there and what culture we brought,” he said. “It started with what nobody could see on the field. It started inside those four walls in the locker room and the brotherhood that we made.”
That sounds like a future leader. There’s an evident character Sullivan and Hafley are looking for with many of their picks, similar to what linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, a second-round pick, was for Texas Tech.