Buffalo Bills insist on making Tyrod Taylor situation difficult
The Buffalo Bills are all but sure to part with Tyrod Taylor this offseason, unless they don’t.
A year ago around this time, the Buffalo Bills were practically sure to cut ties with Tyrod Taylor. But a contract restructuring under a new regime led to him staying around, and Taylor started 15 games last season as the Bills ended a long playoff drought.
With a $6 million roster bonus due to him on the third day of new league year, barring an agreement to trade him before then, cutting Taylor really seems inevitable this time around. But according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Bills aren’t planning on cutting him without knowing who his replacement will be.
Taylor is also due a very reasonable $10 million base salary for 2018, so he’s not expensive among prospective starting quarterbacks in the league. Enough teams will be in the market for a quarterback to make a trade possible, if the Bills pick up Taylor’s roster bonus and wind up waiting a bit into the start of free agency.
Taylor is an effective runner, and he takes care of the ball (16 interceptions in three seasons — 1,236 pass attempts — as Buffalo’s starting quarterback). But his play has frustrated a second coaching staff now, and Sean McDermott nearly cost the Bills a playoff berth by benching Taylor for rookie Nathan Peterman in Week 11 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Five interceptions later, Taylor finished that blowout loss and got the starting job back.
It’s not quite on the same level right now, but the Bills situation with Taylor is not far behind the Redskins and Kirk Cousins in terms of stupidity/pettiness. The Bills don’t want Taylor, but they don’t want to fully cut ties either.
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There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get something in a trade for Taylor, rather than let him go for nothing. The Bills could easily be left without a seat on the free agent quarterback carousel, and being unwilling to make a move on Taylor until they have a clear replacement in the pipeline reeks of that fear.