Totally replace WordPress default author page URLs with that of custom taxonomy named "authors"

replace_author_urls.php

<?php
function disable_WP_author_rewrites($rules) {
	$rules['author/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$'] = 'index.php?authors=$matches[1]&feed=$matches[2]';
	$rules['author/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$'] = 'index.php?authors=$matches[1]&feed=$matches[2]';
	$rules['author/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$'] = 'index.php?authors=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]';
	$rules['author/([^/]+)/?$'] = 'index.php?authors=$matches[1]';

	return $rules;
}

add_filter( 'rewrite_rules_array' , 'disable_WP_author_rewrites' );