Hello Buffalo Bills. It’s me. I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to have a real quarterback. To actually win everything. They say time is supposed to bring a QB, but I ain’t seen much QBing.
When Bills head coach Rex Ryan gets fired after this season, and he will, I hope he’ll finally learn a simple fact; you can’t just decide a guy is your starting quarterback. Ryan has now tried this three times, first with Mark Sanchez, then Geno Smith and now Tyrod Taylor and he always thinks he’s figured it out. But the results are consistently the same, mediocrity or worse.
#Bills GM Doug Whaley said Tyrod Taylor's impressive offseason, command he showed w the offense, convinced team he was worthy of extension.
— Vic Carucci (@viccarucci) August 12, 2016
Taylor’s contract was going to be up in Buffalo after this season and that should have been fine. Taylor should have been a stop-gap guy. A place-holder for a young guy to develop from the draft. Only the Bills screwed that up, passing up Paxton Lynch, Dak Prescott and Connor cook with every pick and ended up with Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, a guy who wasn’t even good enough to keep his job in college.
But Rex, General Manager Doug Whaley and the Bills braintrust had no desire to upgrade their quarterback in the draft. Not really. And God forbid they bring in a guy that could actually compete against Taylor in preseason. No. They liked the guy they had. And that’s the reason they won’t make the playoffs again this season, the 17th year in a row.
Just a few days ago the Bills signed Taylor to a six-year, $92 million contract that comes with enough incentives that Taylor could make $112 million over the next six years. He will not. In fact, he won’t be in the NFL six years from now. Taylor won’t be in the NFL three years from now.
Tyrod Taylor's deal is $92M over 6; $90M over 5 in new cash. $37M in injury guarantees. If option is picked up, $40.25M is fully guaranteed.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 12, 2016
There’s a notion that this is somehow a team-friendly contact and that’s just crap. Sure, the cap hit if the Bills cut Taylor in 2019 is lower than in 2016-2018, but it’ll still be $3.1 million. That’s a lot of money. And in the mean time Taylor will have a cap number of $10.6 million this season, $15.233 million next season and $16.1 million in 2018. So they’re stuck with him until then, regardless of what happens.
And nothing good is going to happen.
Taylor had a good season in 2015. He went 7-6 as a starter, completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. Which looks OK on paper, but the only game won on paper is Dungeons and Dragons and unless Taylor’s THACO is straight 20s, reality is about singe his eyebrows off.
(Four people reading this will get that joke. For those four, all I can say is you are welcome.)
Taylor is not a franchise quarterback, but the Bills are now paying him like he is one for at least the next three seasons. Ryan thinks he can win his defense and a methodical offense that doesn’t make mistakes. He’s wrong. Not in the AFC East and not when so many other teams do it better.
BREAKING: QB Tyrod Taylor and @buffalobills have reached a long-term extension. pic.twitter.com/kgyC9zhcGC
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) August 12, 2016
Ryan is a good defensive coach. He can put a good unit together and coach them up. But the defense isn’t why the team went 8-8 last year. It was the offense. Innefectiveness leads to more offensive positions for the other team and a shorter field after punts and turnovers. The Bills had the No. 8 ranked defensive unit in the NFL in 2015, yet still gave up 30 or more points in five games. They were No. 15 in points, giving up 22.4 points per game.
Of the 12 teams that made the playoffs in 2015, only one gave up more than 20.2 points per game and it was the 9-7 Washington Redskins (23.7).
Taylor is a quality back up. He’s a guy that you can win games with if your real starter is hurt. He’s not an Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson or Cam Newton. And paying him anything close to that to keep him is ridiculous. And now the Bills are stuck with him until 2019.
I hope Rex thinks about that when he’s analyzing games on a weekday NFL Network show.
