Buffalo Bills Shouldn’t Rush To Pay Tyrod Taylor

Last offseason, the Buffalo Bills had a three-way battle for their starting quarterback position between Matt Cassel, E.J. Manuel and Tyrod Taylor. It wound up working out in a way, as Taylor took the job and turned in a fairly decent season. Heading into the last year of his contract, the Bills might feel some urgency to get Taylor locked up for the next couple years. But they’re better off hanging back and letting some more time go by before deciding to pull the trigger.

The thing with Taylor is that his decent year was, well, just decent. Between passing and rushing Taylor racked up 3,600 total yards and 24 touchdowns. Considering how the position looked before Taylor took over, those numbers aren’t terrible. They look even better when you consider the fact that Taylor only had 10 turnovers all year.

He took care of the ball and put up fairly respectable numbers. What’s the problem?

The problem is that Taylor would want starting quarterback money for one year of performance. Before last year, Taylor had 35 career passes with more interceptions than touchdowns. Granted, he was a backup until last year, but the fact remains he only has 14 games worth of resume. They may have been great numbers to the Bills, but they can’t pay starting money for average numbers just because average to them is incredible.

Buffalo is better off giving Taylor this year to prove himself. Let him take that step forward, let him really grow into a solid starting quarterback and then they can start talking about a big money extension. With the variety of different tags available to them, they can ensure Taylor sticks around in 2017 if they want to. No matter how hard it is to find a good quarterback in this league, Buffalo has to play it smart. Waiting a year is definitely the smart move.