HOUSTON — The Super Bowl has a way of making stars and validating careers, but Taylor Gabriel appears to be well on his way to both before Sunday’s kickoff.
The 5-foot-8 — and that might be generous — and 165-pound blur of a receiver already has beaten long odds by going from lightly recruited high school player to undersized and undrafted Abilene Christian standout to legitimate NFL player.
It was the job, back in 2014, of another undersized former receiver — then Cleveland Browns wide receiver coach Mike McDaniel, who is 5-9 and played the position at Yale — to sift through the dozens of undrafted wideouts, all the flotsam and jetsam that was passed over in seven rounds of the draft, to ID one or two players who fit offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s ideal of what they were looking for at the position.