FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Mason Taylor remembers running around the fields as a wide-eyed kid at New York Jets training camp, visiting his famous father and rooting him on at games.
He's back, 15 years later. And now, it's his turn.
The rookie tight end, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Jason Taylor, has been one of the standout performers through the Jets' first nine camp practices. Taylor, a second-round pick out of LSU, is making plays and impressing his coaches and teammates.
“Mason, he doesn’t talk a lot, he does work a lot, though,” quarterback Justin Fields said. “From the moment he got here, he’s been working, his head down working. He doesn’t make really any mental mistakes, at least from what I’ve seen. He’s a great route runner, he’s smooth, has natural hands, so he’s been great so far.”
The 21-year-old Taylor, whose uncle is Hall of Famer Zach Thomas, received a text from his father the night before camp opened, offering him some sound advice.
“Really just stay where your feet are,” Taylor recalled. “I mean, we always say that in our family — day by day, you know, attack the day, get better every single day and really just be where your feet are. Don’t look into the future, don’t look into the past and just take advantage of every moment you get.”
Jason Taylor would certainly know all about that.
Recognized as one of the NFL's greatest pass rushers with 139 1/2 sacks, the elder Taylor made a name for himself during 11 outstanding seasons playing for Miami and then one in Washington before joining Rex Ryan's Jets in 2010.
New York was one of the league's best teams that season, reaching the AFC championship game — one win away from the Super Bowl. The Jets' kicker was Nick Folk, who just re-signed with the team — and now has the distinction of having been teammates with both Jason and Mason Taylor.
“It's a crazy, crazy world,” Mason Taylor said with a big smile. “I mean, it's crazy to think about and now that he's on my team, it's a blessing, for sure.”
Taylor is in position to have a major role on the Jets' offense as a rookie. He was listed Sunday on the team's first unofficial depth chart as a backup to Jeremy Ruckert, but the 6-foot-5, 251-pound Taylor is expected to see his fair share of snaps — especially if he continues with his impressive summer.
“The receiving skills, listen, that doesn’t surprise me, I know he can do that,” coach Aaron Glenn said. "His blocking, I know he can block, but I didn’t think it was going to be this good. So, I’m excited to see how he matures when it comes to camp on how we want to do things as far as that is concerned.”
In three seasons at LSU, Taylor had 129 catches for 1,308 yards and six TDs, establishing himself as the most productive tight end in school history and one of the top players at his position in the country.
The Jets parted ways this winter with Tyler Conklin, their top pass-catching tight end, by allowing him to leave in free agency. So, New York was in need of a complement to wide receiver Garrett Wilson and provide Fields another reliable outlet in the passing game. New general manager Darren Mougey jumped on the chance to bring in Taylor, who has made that selection look smart.
“I think it’s been pretty good,” Taylor said of his progress. “Things have been flying around in the installs and everything like that, but I think I’ve kind of grasped onto it pretty quickly. And with the help of my teammates and coaches, I've been getting on the playbook pretty fast."
Taylor acknowledged that the little details of the offense — how many steps to take in a route, where you're supposed to be in position on a given play — have been the biggest things to which he has had to adapt.
He has also put extra emphasis on his blocking, working on his hand placement and pad level as he aims to be an all-around tight end in the NFL.
“I see growth and development out of Mason,” offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said. “He’s on the path to becoming what we expected and hoped he could be. And he’s done a really nice job this camp in the pass game and in the run game as well. So, again, daily improvement by him, and we’re excited to see where that continues to go.”
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New York Jets tight end Mason Taylor (85) stretches during practice at the team's NFL football training camp, Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Florham Park, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
New York Jets tight end Mason Taylor (85) runs drills during practice at the team's NFL football training camp, Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Florham Park, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.
The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark's foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “ fundamental disagreement ” remains with Trump over the island.
The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and "people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.
Here's a look at what Greenlanders have been saying:
Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”
By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen told AP.
Laursen said she used to work on a fishing trawler but is now studying law. She approached AP to say she thought previous examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans are “often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds.”
She said during World War II, Greenlandic hunters on their dog sleds worked in conjunction with the U.S. military to detect Nazi German forces on the island.
“The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go,” Laursen said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are swarming the seas around Greenland. Plenty of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that claim.
“I think he (Trump) should mind his own business,” said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.
“What's he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland,” he said.
Down at Nuuk's small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he attached small fish as bait to his lines. He said, “I don't see them (the ships)” and said he had only seen “a Russian fishing boat ten years ago.”
Maya Martinsen, 21, a shop worker, told AP she doesn't believe Trump wants Greenland to enhance America's security.
“I know it’s not national security. I think it’s for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched,” she said, suggesting the Americans are treating her home like a “business trade.”
She said she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officials met in the White House Wednesday and said she believes that “the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side,” despite some Greenlanders wanting independence.
“It is nerve-wrecking, that the Americans aren’t changing their mind,” she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would be sending troops to Greenland because “it’s important that the people we work closest with, that they send support.”
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told AP that she hopes the U.S. got the message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to “back off.”
She said she didn't want to join the United States because in Greenland “there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses ... we don’t have to pay anything,” she said adding "I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us.”
In Greenland's parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament told AP that he has done multiple media interviews every day for the last two weeks.
When asked by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the chance, Berthelsen said:
“I would tell them, of course, that — as we’ve seen — a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation.”
“It is our country,” he said. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report.
FILE - A woman pushes a stroller with her children in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament poses for photo at his office in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fisherman Gerth Josefsen prepares fishing lines at the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A woman walks on a street past a Greenlandic national flag in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
