Buffalo Bills: Tyrod Taylor a flash in the pan
By Andrew Long
After years of struggling to find a capable quarterback to lead their offense, has the team finally found their guy in Tyrod Taylor? I have a hard time believing that’s the case.
The Buffalo Bills have long struggled to find success as a team, finishing at the bottom of the AFC East six out of the last eight seasons. A good portion of their struggles can be contributed to mediocre or below average quarterback play. That being said, the team finished third in the division at 8-8 last season with Taylor as their primary signal-caller, although two of those losses came with EJ Manuel under center.
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The quarterback, after spending four years in Baltimore as a backup to Joe Flacco, was finally given the opportunity to start in 2015 for Buffalo. His first year as a starter was impressive, completing 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,035 yards with 20 touchdowns and only six interceptions. On top of his impressive passing numbers, Taylor also regularly created plays with his feet, rushing for 568 yards and four touchdowns.
His play was outstanding, and it was evident that the offense played better with him at the helm. The year before, with Kyle Orton under center, their offense was stagnant, finishing 18th in points and 26th in yards. In 2015, with Taylor as their starting quarterback, the offense ranked 12th in points and 13th in yards, a major improvement from the previous year.
His presence undoubtedly played a large role in the team’s offensive success, and they have every reason to be excited about the future of the unit. Be that as it may, I believe that the team should practice caution when planning the future of the franchise around him.
I say this because, if you compare their statistics and play styles, Taylor’s strong season looked eerily similar to the historic rookie season by Robert Griffin III in 2012. If you go down the list, nearly all of their statistics coincide.
The similarities in their game are evident, and if I’m a member of the Buffalo Bills managerial staff, that scares me. Taylor, like Griffin has done throughout his career, missed time in 2015. It wasn’t a major injury for the quarterback, and he only missed a couple of games, but it’s still disheartening to see the leader of your offense on the sideline due to injury.
Very rarely do quarterbacks with that play style last in the league. Players like Cam Newton and Russell Wilson are few and far between, and while that’s the type of player franchises wish to land in mobile quarterbacks, rarely does it workout in their favor.
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In most cases, mobile quarterbacks are plagued by injury and/or struggle to function in a professional style offense – RG3, Tim Tebow, Manuel, Johnny Manziel, and Colin Kaepernick are examples of this.
Sadly, I foresee Taylor suffering a similar fate in Buffalo. He produced a solid season for the team, and led them to enough wins to inspire some hope. I would love to see him succeed for an extended period of time, but I just don’t see it happening.