Pitt captain, starting left tackle Branson Taylor out for the year

Pitt senior left tackle and captain Branson Taylor was noticeably absent from the Acrisure Stadium field for the team’s game against Syracuse, and Narduzzi confirmed in the postgame press conference that Taylor is out for the remainder of the season.

“Branson is out for the season with a knee,” the Pitt head coach said. “He's in good shape right now, on the mend. So we're going to miss him. He was on FaceTime in the locker room. He's up in the box today. He had season-ending surgery.”

Taylor started the initial six games of the season, giving him 21 for his career. The former three-star recruit from Ohio won the starting right tackle position going into the 2023 campaign, but shifted to left tackle in the fourth game after former Panther Matt Gonclaves went down with a season-ending injury himself.

Following in the footsteps of Goncalves last year, and Carter Warren in 2022, Taylor’s season-ending injury marks the third consecutive season Pitt has lost its starting senior left tackle to an injury midway through the year.

Starting in Taylor’s place on Thursday was Terrence Enos Jr. He played the entire second half in Pitt’s previous game against Cal, and made the first start of his 2024 season, and second of his career against the Orange.

“He's a tough kid,” Narduzzi said of the redshirt junior. “I think he played okay.”

Following the injury, Pitt will likely stick with Enos on the left side, but starting right tackle Ryan Baer can always slide over to the left side. Sophomores Jackson Brown and Isaiah Montgomery also would seem the most likely to move up the depth chart behind Baer and Enos.

The Panthers lost starting left guard to Ryan Jacoby in the Cal game, but the senior was on the field and made his fifth start of the season on Thursday. Jacoby rotated with fellow senior Jason Collier against the Orange.

Taylor was named to the Senior Bowl watch list prior to the start of the season. The 6-foot-6 and 330-pound senior was certainly on the NFL’s radar going into this season, but a knee injury during his senior year is not going to help his cause, although Warren and Gonclaves both were drafted after their year-ending injuries.

Taylor came to Pitt in 2020, and only played in three games that year. He would seemingly have a case to gain a sixth-year of eligibility should he pursue that option.