Redskins Sua Cravens will honor Sean Taylor by wearing his rookie number

Redskins second-round draft pick Su’a Cravens knows he’s “starting at the bottom of the totem pole” in the NFL, but the linebacker and safety hybrid is determined to earn his teammates’ respect and carry on the legacy of late Redskins safety Sean Taylor.

At Southern California, Cravens wore No. 21, which no Redskins player has worn — except in practice — since Taylor was murdered in 2007. On Sunday, it was announced that Cravens will wear No. 36, which Taylor wore during his rookie season in 2004 before switching to No. 21. T.J. Duckett wore No. 36 in 2006 and Darrel Young wore No. 36 for the past six seasons, but Cravens becomes the first defensive player to wear those digits since Taylor.

“Well [Taylor’s] definitely my all-time favorite safety, and those are big shoes to fill,” Cravens told Redskins Nation. “So when I come into Washington, I’m ready to play and hopefully I can be half as good as that man.”

Redskins General Manager Scot McCloughan is confident that Cravens will do No. 36 proud.

“This is the definition of a football player,” McCloughan told ESPN 980’s Kevin Sheehan and Chris Cooley on Monday. “He’s a stud. He’s not as tall as everybody wants, he’s not as fast as everybody wants, he doesn’t have the arm length that everybody wants, but all he does is make plays. Day One stepping on the campus he started making plays. The thing that’s great about him is the diversity we have to move him around; he could play multiple spots. Not just that, but he has really good value on special teams as well.”

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