There are some that are unwilling to give up on the Taylor Mays experience, unmoved on empirical evidence that his overall role has been "diminished" as a special teams player that plays backup in the defensive secondary. Mays, a kickoff weekend starter against the Baltimore Ravens, was quickly set aside for two 32-year olds in Nate Clements, who moved from cornerback, and Chris Crocker, who was a street free agent heading into Week Four last year.

Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, who believes that it's up to him to find a niche for Taylor, defended the safety saying that he was trying too hard.

"It wasn’t all him," Zimmer told Joe Reedy with the Cincinnati Enquirer. "We started playing badly. We had to make changes and he just happened to be one of the guys we made changes with, but when things aren’t going good you can’t keep doing what you’re doing and hope it works out," Zimmer said. "Taylor, like a lot of these young guys, he was trying to do too much. Sometimes it takes awhile to understand what they do is more important than what they tell other people to do."

Mays was acquired by the Bengals from San Francisco on August 22, 2011 with Cincinnati sending the 49ers their 2013 seventh round pick.