National Football League

49ers Taylor Mays is expecting more from himself

Published Oct. 10, 2010 10:13 p.m. ET

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Taylor Mays, at 22, sees no reason to act his age.

"I don't feel like I have to play like a rookie," he said. "I feel like I can play a lot better."

The 49ers apparently agree. Mays vaulted from third on the depth chart to the starting lineup over the span of a few weeks. He was supposed to be a project player, but his 4.3 speed, 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame and accelerated learning curve prompted the 49ers coaching staff to declare the project over.

"If the kid can play and makes plays out on the field, that's what you look for as a coordinator or as a coach," defensive coordinator Greg Manusky said. "That's all I really care about."

Mays jumped past veteran Michael Lewis (who asked for and received his release) and third-year man Reggie Smith (who lacks Mays' upside) and made his first career start last week.

On Sunday, the hard-hitting Mays will roam center field in his first start at Candlestick Park.

Mays and the rest of secondary will be in the spotlight against a Philadelphia Eagles team that ranks ninth in the NFL in total yards.

With the 49ers offense struggling, the onus will be on the defense to keep fleet receivers DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin from putting the score out of reach. Jackson, the former Cal star, leads the NFL with 21.1 yards per catch (minimum 15 catches) while Maclin is tied for third with four receiving touchdowns.

"DeSean is a good player. Maclin is a good player. They present problems for a defense," Mays said. "It'll be fun. I've played against DeSean before. It'll be fun to go against him."

The 49ers would be well served to keep this a low-scoring affair. Since Andy Reid arrived as coach in 1999, the Eagles are 88-23 when they score at least 20 points. They are 48-2 when they score at least 30.

They appeared to catch a break, with Michael Vick (ribs) on the shelf this week. Kevin Kolb will start in his place, a week after completing 22 of 35 passes for 201 yards in his three quarters of relief against the Redskins.

"We're hurt that we lost Vick, but it's great for a guy like Kevin to come in and step in, because he's already had the spot and he's used to it," Jackson said this week, on a conference call with 49ers writers. "So as far as us working hard all this week in practice, we know what we have riding on the line. We just want to set ourselves up to win."

Kolb lacks some of Vick's daring. The longest of his 27 completions this season is 18 yards. He averages 5.0 yards per attempt compared to Vick's league-best 8.32.

And, of course, he lacks Vick's elusive feet.

"It's always hard to cover Vick because he can scramble and get out and make a no-play into a 50-yard play," Manusky said. "This kid, Kolb, he's got some ability to scramble and he's done that in the past. So we have got to protect that as well."

Mays, in his starting debut against the Falcons last week, scored a touchdown by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone. On defense, he was solid if unspectacular. He had a team-high 11 tackles, in part because Atlanta often ran plays in his direction.

"It was kind of discouraging watching the film and encouraging because I felt like I could be so much better right now than what I saw on film," Mays said. "That's really how I felt."

The question about the rookie is whether he'll be in the right place. Mays is astonishingly fast, but sometimes that merely means he's running faster toward being out of position. The Eagles could look to exploit his inexperience.

Manusky said: "(Reid) is going to have all of his packages and screens in. As a defense, you have to play that as a team defense. Play the reverses. Play the screens. Play the gimmick plays that they have."

As for the deep routes, with Jackson and Maclin, coach Mike Singletary said the key for the 49ers will be to jam those players at the line of scrimmage to prevent them from getting a clean break downfield. The 49ers need to do better than they did last year, when Jackson torched them for six catches and 140 yards.

"I was put in a pretty good position to go out there and take advantage of certain things they were trying to do," Jackson said. "So, hopefully, this game we'll be able to go out there and rack up some more stats and get a victory."

For more on the 49ers, see Daniel Brown's Hot Read blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers . E-mail dbrown@mercurynews.com

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