Tyrod Taylor was a healthy scratch to end the season while his Buffalo Bills took a 30-10 whipping at the hands of the New York Jets.
So no, he isn’t a happy camper.
Reasons for Taylor’s benching abound. One simply says the team isn’t confident in him. Another says now-fired head coach Rex Ryan liked him, but those remaining on the staff don’t. A nicer rumbling simply says the front office didn’t want to see a potential franchise quarterback go into next year injured, though financial reasons play a role in such a thought process, too.
Regardless, Taylor hopes to find out the real reason this week, according to Matthew Fairburn of NYup.com:
“They made a decision last week to sit me for the last game of the season,” Taylor said. “Did I believe that was fair? No I didn’t.
“I didn’t see where it was fair. The opportunity was taken from me. That’s above me. That decision was made. I had to live with it and support my guys.”
Reporters then suggested the move was a lack of confidence in Taylor:
“Um, I mean that’s fair to say,” Taylor said. “That’s what it showed. That’s what I think it showed. But at the same time, the conversation wasn’t detailed enough to know if that was the case or not. Hopefully we can have that conversation this week. Maybe it’s today. I’m not sure. We haven’t met as a unit yet, nor have I met with the people upstairs, so maybe it will be clear what’s the direction moving forward.”
Taylor hits all of the proper team-guy responses here. He still supports his teammates, but as a competitor he wants to be out there on the field with them. Also, he’d simply like if the staff took an honest approach about the situation.
Taylor took a step back in 2016 despite more passing attempts, completing 61.7 percent of his passes for 3,023 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions, everything but the turnovers a decrease.
Like the rest of the globe, Taylor is about to learn much about the direction of the Bills in the coming weeks.
Whether he likes it is another discussion entirely.
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