Last season was a weird one for Tyrod Taylor. He went 8-6 as a starter and helped the Bills break their 17-year playoff drought, but now his future in Buffalo is up in the air.
Tyrod Taylor rumors: Bills might pay him a $6 million roster bonus and still let him walk
Here’s all the latest on Taylor’s situation.
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Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
Taylor agreed to restructure his contract last offseason with a two-year, $30.5 million deal. He won the starting job in Buffalo only to get benched for rookie Nathan Peterman after a 47-10 loss to the Saints in Week 10. It wasn’t Taylor’s best game, but he didn’t give up 47 points to New Orleans, either. Peterman was downright terrible in his first NFL start. He threw five picks in his first 14 passes against the Chargers (Taylor threw four all season). Taylor replaced him after halftime.
Taylor is the best quarterback on the Bills’ roster — he takes care of the ball, while also excelling at play-action passing and scrambling. But he’s not a proficient or consistent passer. He threw just 2,799 yards all season and struggles with downfield accuracy.
The Bills have never seemed sold with Taylor as their franchise quarterback. So once again, it’s unclear what Taylor’s future holds.
What are the Bills going to do with Tyrod Taylor?
The Bills have four options:
- Keep Taylor for the 2018 season while grooming a young quarterback to take his place
- Keep Taylor for now but cut him after they solidify a plan at the quarterback position, either in the draft or free agency
- Keep Taylor and try to trade him
- Or they can cut bait now and figure the whole thing out later
If Taylor is released, he’d be one of the less expensive and more experienced options on the free agent quarterback market.
Taylor also has a $6 million roster bonus that becomes fully guaranteed on March 17. If they keep him on the roster and then cut or trade him after, they’re fully on the hook for that amount.
The latest Tyrod Taylor news and rumors
Here’s what we know about Taylor’s status with the Bills.
Feb. 28: It doesn’t appear that the Bills want to cut Taylor, according to head coach Sean McDermott at the NFL Combine. But there’s plenty of options:
Bills GM Brandon Beane also chimed in on Taylor:
Feb. 22: NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport believes not cutting Taylor is a real possibility, because he doesn’t think the Bills will move on before they have a plan established at the quarterback position.
Taylor is set to make $10 million in 2018 after his bonus, a relatively low salary that might make him more appealing trade bait.
Feb. 2: Taylor does not want to restructure his contract for the second year in a row. “I’ve done that before,” Taylor told Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News. “I don’t think there’s a need to do that again.”
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