racketmaster

There is no argument that the Baltimore game was a disappointment. But it is also just one game and the only one that I can think of in Tyrod's 29 starts that he was almost completely shut down. I think there were a few factors that lead to this: 1. Limited reps in preseason for starting unit. Sammy barely played and very limited time for the starters for fear of injuries. Team seemed to come out a little rusty. 2. Taylor looked to be pressing. This happens sometimes. A player can be so hyped up to play a former team that he just does not relax and let the game come to him. Having Baltimore week 1 gave Taylor all offseason to think about this game and he just did not seem to be his normal self in this game. I attribute it to him pressing. 3. Baltimore knows Taylor and it is not uncommon for this to happen with other players and quarterbacks around the league. Every player has weaknesses and Baltimore tried to force Taylor to stay in the pocket. Again, Taylor tried to force the issue to much by attempting to get out of the pocket when it was not there to do so. This was just one game and if this was some master plan to stop Tyrod, then other teams would have copied it. No other team has been able to hold Taylor and the offense to 7 points or less. It was a bad performance but not a pattern of play for Taylor.

Still a lot of words but maybe this will be more interesting as they are some comments on Taylor from his past coaches and teammates Cam Cameron on Tyrod Taylor in August 2011: “This kid is special,” Cameron said after Tuesday’s practice. “You saw the practice. We have got a heck of a young quarterback,” Cameron said. “It is asking a lot out of him, but right now we’re getting him ready to play.” “We have us a good, young quarterback and I won’t back up on that,” he said. “I just have so much confidence in the people we draft and [the scouting department has] done it again. They have found another extremely bright, talented, young quarterback.” Jim Caldwell on Taylor from November 2013: "He's a guy that can certainly throw the ball," offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell said. "He's a quarterback that's a good field general, a quarterback that can move the ball down the field. I think as time goes on, he just keeps developing and getting better with the limited amount of snaps that he gets in terms of games. But [we] can see the growth and development." Gary Kubiak on Taylor form August 2014: “I’ve been very impressed,” Kubiak said.“Ty really bought into what we’re doing; he’s working extremely hard. The thing I love about Ty, I know his goal is to be a starter in this league and that’s what you want as a coach. So he’s very competitive, pushes Joe every day, doing a great job.” Taylor on the fit in Kubiak's offense: Kubiak’s offense puts Taylor more on the move with bootlegs and other play-action plays. Taylor is good at throwing on the move and has plenty of arm strength to do so, another thing Kubiak said he was impressed by. Moving outside also allows him more room to possibly take off running himself. Taylor has 23 career rushing attempts for 139 yards, an average of six yards per carry. “It definitely benefits my game,” Taylor said of the new offensive system. “It does things that I like to do, as far as getting on the move and keeping the defense unbalanced. You keep them on their toes.” Some comments from Baltimore teammates: "Whenever that boy gets a chance," said wide receiver Tandon Doss, shaking his head, "he is going to be a monster. His play-making ability is incredible. I've never seen somebody so athletic play football. He's a freak. He's got it. He's something special, I'm telling you." "Tyrod is a great player, and if that was to happen, I think everybody should feel very confident about his abilities to go in there, run the offense and get the job done," Flacco said. "Honestly, he reminds me of [seattle Seahawks quarterback] Russell Wilson," inside linebacker Josh Bynes said. "He's that kind of guy that people probably looked over him because he was short and this and that. They're very similar. They're both elusive. And they can launch the ball down the field. It's a tough task going against him every day in practice." There are many more comments out there giving high praise to Taylor from his days in Baltimore to his time here in Buffalo. Just seems like coaches and teammates like Taylor a lot more than fans and media in Buffalo. I'll side with coaches and teammates on this one.

Still the fact remains that Denver went after Tyrod at 2 different times (FA period 2015 and draft 2016). It shows me that a quality organization like Denver believed in Tyrod as a QB. So did another quality run organization, Baltimore. They drafted and groomed Tyrod for 4 years. I believe Tyrod had 3 different OC's in his 4 years in Baltimore and all of them spoke highly of Tyrod as a quarterback. The last OC (Kubiak/Dennison) were likely the driving factor for Denver trying to obtain Tyrod's rights. There were reports and articles linking Tyrod to Denver this year but nothing substantiated. We really don't know if Elway tried pursuing Tyrod for a 3rd time or not. And if he did not, who could blame him. Tyrod took less money to come to the Bills in 2015 and Elway was unable to get a trade done in 2016. Many reasonable people in Elway's spot might think it better to pursue different options rather than potentially strike out a 3rd time on Tyrod. I am fairly certain that Denver and Elway had reason to believe that Tyrod was going to stay with the Bills once Dennison was named OC. Coaches and personnel guys talk, especially when at gatherings like the Senior Bowl or NFL Combine. I believe Kubiak/Dennison pushed hard for Taylor in Denver. Elway knows that Dennison is a big fan of Taylor. So the guy that had been driving the train to get Taylor in Denver, now ends up with Taylor in Buffalo and is suddenly not going to want him anymore. Of course not. And McDermott would have hired Dennison knowing full well what he felt about Tyrod. Long story short, I believe Elway had a pretty good idea that Taylor was going to be staying in Buffalo. I really don't understand the hate from some posters on Taylor. Judging by the comments on him you would think Taylor's play was comparable to Losman, Edwards or Manuel. Taylor has played in different offenses (Cam Cameron, Jim Caldwell, Gary Kubiak, Roman/Lynn) and been able to pick them up effectively. Each of his OC's have praised Taylor for his performance within their offense. It seems likely to me that Cam Cameron is the coach who sold Rex Ryan on Taylor. Ryan had connections within the Baltimore organization and had wanted to trade for Taylor while with the Jets. Cameron was very high on Taylor from their time in Baltimore and I believe Ryan obtained insider knowledge on Taylor from Cameron. In sum, we have a bunch of coaches that like Taylor as a quarterback (including our current HC would did a complete evaluation of Taylor). Coaches that have worked with him, see that he is talented and has a great deal of potential. His first 2 years as a starter have proven that he can be a quality starter. And I do not think he was put in the best offensive system. Roman and especially Lynn seemed more interested in utilizing Taylor as a running threat rather than focusing more on passing schemes and concepts. And of course this is not a surprise considering who was our HC (Rex Ryan). There is a youtube video with Ryan while he was with the Jets praising Cameron as an offensive coordinator and Ryan says something to the effect that Cam Cameron was a great OC because he did not care about stats but rather winning. That he was not afraid to "take the air out of the ball" and that he had told Joe Flacco numerous times "that if he was not 100% sure he could complete a pass, he should not throw it". And he liked that he would take shots down the field. Does this sound familiar? Could it be possible that Taylor's talents were reigned in by a HC that wanted to play conservatively on offense (ground and pound) so that it would protect his defense? Not turning over the ball and running clock protects a defense and make the defense look better as well as the defensive mind in charge of that defense. Is it possible that Ryan wanted Taylor to play conservatively to help his defense and protect his ego? I certainly believe that with a change in offensive philosophy, Taylor will have his best season yet and he may even get to passing numbers that will quiet his biggest detractors. Think about some of the games at the end of the season where the Bills decided to open it up in the passing game more than they had. Look at the Jets game at the end of 2015 where Taylor used the middle of the field much more than he had previously. What about the Miami game in week 16 this year where Taylor was passing all over the field and leading our team to almost 600 yards of offense. In both games, the Bills were out of playoff contention but playing teams that needed to win. In those games, it seems like Ryan allowed the offense to open up more because it did not effect our playoff chances. Those 2 late season performances are more of what I would expect from Taylor in 2017 (and it is no coincidence that Sammy appeared to be fairly healthy in those 2 games).

Like it or not but QBR is a stat that is correlated with winning. Tyrod has been a top 10 QBR quarterback the past 2 years. Defense, injuries, poor coaching and below average kicking has held the team back. McDermott is viewed positively across the NFL. He did a complete analysis of tyrod and could have easily decided to walk away. Instead, he decided that keeping Tyrod gives the bills the best chance at winning. I'll side with coach on this one. Dennison's offense is a great fit for Tyrod. He will have his best year yet.

Excellent post alphadawg7

Amen

Having the benefit of some healthy receiving options should offset the better competition point.

I am not so sure that Whaley does not want to build thru the draft as he was groomed in Pittsburgh. However, he took over as GM of a team that had not been to the playoffs in a long time. There was an extra pressure to build a playoff team quickly. Accumulating draft picks and developing talent may actually have been what Whaley preferred to do. However, pressure from fans, media and an uncertain ownership situation may have lead him to try hitting a home run with Watkins trade. Then the new owners bring in Rex Ryan (Rex was not even on the HC candidate list submitted by Whaley) and Rex cranked up the expectations even more with all his bluster. Anyone interested in a Rex Ryan coaching regime should read "Collision Low Crossers". I read that book after Ryan was hired and was scared to death of the future. Rex is a good guy and well liked but definitely not the type to take a patient, build thru the draft approach. Rex was able to bring in a lot of his "guys" (former Jets and Ravens). Ask yourself who pushed for Harvin or IK to be brought in? I have no first hand knowledge of the Ragland draft pick, but I feel fairly confident that this was a move Ryan pushed hard for. Ragland is a Ryan type player and he was raving about him from the moment he stepped on the field in mini camp. But of course we had to give up 2 fourth round picks to move up a few spots in the second round for him. Ryan raised expectations of winning and the Bills went into win now at whatever cost mode. And we are now paying the cost with only 6 picks in this year's draft and limited cap space due to big free agent signings like Charles Clay. Obviously, Whaley deserves quite a bit of blame for our current situation but I do think a little perspective and context is called for when evaluating him as a GM. I believe that it is entirely possible had Whaley gone to another organization that had recent success he could have gone the route of building thru the draft. I mean think about it, Whaley was in a spot where his owner passed away and the team future was in flux. It is not unreasonable to think that he would take more risks in that situation rather than just play it safe and build thru the draft so some other GM and coach can reap the benefits. I would like to see what Whaley can do with what I believe is a real HC. If Whaley cannot make it work with McDermott, than I would be completely on board with getting rid of him. But I would like to give him and McDermott a year or two to see if the team is heading in the right direction. Whaley has a pretty good eye for spotting talent and maybe with McDermott's vision they can make a good team.

When teams are expecting and onside kick the success rate happens to be about 20%. How often has Rodgers been applauded for throwing hail mary touchdown passes after his team was able to recover onside kicks. Getting within a score and having a chance with an onside kick is not garbage time. Getting to within one score is not a thousand to one probability of winning, unless a team has to rely on Dan Carpenter's pathetic onside kick attempts (then maybe your percentage is right). The final score often dictates what people view as garbage time. If NE fails to tie on a 2 point conversion was the 4th quarter comeback in the SB viewed as just garbage time? Fortunately for Bills fans all that matters is what the players in the locker room believe about Tyrod. And, outside of some of Sammy's comments, players on the team appear to genuinely have faith in Tyrod as their QB. Also remember that McDermott did a patient and complete analysis of Tyrod and the QB landscape and what did he decide? McDermott basically hitched his wagon to Tyrod for the next 2 years with the belief that Taylor is a winner. That is what McDermott said he wanted from his QB when he arrived. He wanted someone who was competitive and a winner and he studied Tyrod and watched him up close and decided that this is a QB that his team could win with.

I think the hope this year us that Sammy is healthy. If he is then we have a true #1 wr. Clay is a solid option at te when healthy and McCoy is an excellent receiver out of the backfield. Holmes will be a big body wr and threat in red zone. Brown and butler will add depth. I think Bills will draft Oj Howard providing another receiving option for boots and rollouts. If not, i see a real possibility of them grabbing Davis/ Williams in 1st or at the very least a wr in second. That should be good enough as far as receiving weapons.

There was not a lot to like about the Bengals game but it was a road game coming off their bye after a really tough loss in Seattle. I think the team emptied their tank in Seattle when they were desperate for a win. Also, AJ Green went out early in this game and this was one of the few games where the Bills defense seemed to be in control. I think our coaching staff just wanted the offense to play conservative and not make any mistakes and what that got was a lackluster performance on offense but enough to get a road win.

True. But last year they signed a bunch of guys like Little, Hankerson, Salas, and eventually Hunter who have been given opportunities in the NFL. They each had some success but were not able to maintain or improve upon their success. Salas may have been good for us but he could not stay healthy. Holmes had some success as a #2 wr but then lost playing time once Crabtree and Cooper came on board (they are 2 pretty solid wrs so that is not a huge knock on Holmes). Brown and Butler have not had much in the way of opportunities. Maybe 1 of them steps up here. Plus, with Brown and Butler you can use them on special teams. Goodwin was a nice deep threat but could not do much else and was often injured.

I wish I had an answer to that. I'm sure Rex would as well. Games like that certainly do reflect poorly on the coaching staff and QB. The defense not being able to put up any resistance in the second half helped create a huge momentum swing in favor of the home team. This in turn fired up their defense giving the entire team life. To a man, our team appeared to have the life sucked out of them in the second half of the Raiders game. Maybe if someone stepped up and made a play the momentum could have shifted back. On a side note, the back to back wildcat calls after the Raiders first scored in the 3rd quarter were infuriating. I hope I never see a wildcat play again with Taylor at QB. We had some moderate success with the play early on and it just was not that effective later in the season. The play makes no sense to me when you have the most athletic QB in the NFL behind center. Use the play if you have a QB who is not a threat but not with Taylor. Back on point, those wildcat plays left us a 3rd and passing situation allowing the Raiders pass rush to attack with the crowd behind them. Incomplete, a punt and another Raiders score and it is 24-23 Bills after being up 24-9 just a few minutes earlier. Shock set it at this point and never recovered.

He is a complete TE and i think he would be rated higher had he played in more of a passing offense. Having him in Clay would be great for bootlegs and red zone. Plus, i have a feeling that Clays knee is not right and he may not be here much longer.

Taylor and the offense came out on fire in the Raiders game. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in the second half. If there are any games i was disappointed in Taylor it would be the second half of the Raiders and week 1 against the Ravens. But every qb has bad games. Well, except for Brady.

There are a lot of things to like about Taylor's game but you are right the 2 minute offense is not one of them. I do think that it will get better under our new coach. I just feel our overall that our team lacked with situational football. Rex was not a disciplined coach and usually the lack of preparation shows up in critical situations.

I believe the west coast offense will be a good fit for Taylor and should have his best year passing.

Kinda of hard to score much when your defense is getting run over all day. It was not the best weather day and Big Ben did throw 3 picks that afternoon and at least one of them was horrendous. Only difference was Bell accounted for 297 yards which is like having a college football game stat line.

Remember we did suck the year before as we were 4-12 and drafted 3rd. Luck decided to stay in school another year and Newton rose up to #1 leaving us Dareus (who is now a weight on our salary cap). Next year Fitz started out hot and faded quickly but his hot start got us to 6-10. Of course Indy tanked without Manning going 1-15. In order to beat out Indy that year we would have had to strip everything down to go 0-16. Once you tank like that in football, it will probably take a few years to build up a roster with enough talent to compete. Even though a QB is super important, football is still not like basketball because there are only 5 guys on the court. Tanking in basketball makes more sense because 1 player can carry a team. Football there are 45 active players each week and even a great QB needs talent around them to succeed. Luck had some success his first 2 years but the team had aging talent that has not been replaced.

The problem with that is the college game is producing many more running qbs as in the past and there are very few traditional (mike glennon type) passers in college anymore. There are many hybrid types but most of them are not efficient enough passers. I liked Prescott last year and he falls into this hybrid category. Long story sIhort, its hard to find pocket passers from the college ranks.

I don't think the NFL is moving back toward traditional pocket passers. The NFL has been moving toward the hybrid qb that has the ability to do both. Look at the top 4 qb prospects. All have the ability to run, some with speed and others with a little more power. There are very few traditional pocket passers that come from the college ranks anymore. You just dont see the rivers, manning, brady types coming out. Maybe the last group would be flacco/ryan but that was almost a decade ago. The ideal passer is Rodgers who is able to run and pass (with the emphasis being more on the pass). Look at the younger qbs like Mariotta, Luck, Newton, Wilson. All have the ability to do both to varying degrees. Even guys like Stafford and Ryan trained to get quicker and had probably their best years. The trick is finding that player. In the meantime, tyrod is not a bad option. He fits more closely to RGIII and Kap but tt is more elusive and durable than Griffin and he has a more compact delivery and more touch than kap. Plus he throws well on the run. So while we would all want our qb to rely more on the pass you have to play to your qbs strengths and that happens to be mobility with tt and the ability to stretch a defense vertically with his deep ball.

I see your point to a certain extent but let the market decide. If enough people on this board feel the way you do then his posts will eventually disappear. However, if he keeps producing quality material that is worth reading and watching then I suspect you will continue to see his posts and links to his sites here because there is demand. In the end, i come on here for one stop shopping. Most all relevant Bills news, analysis and opinions is on here. If i see something interesting here and need to open it at another site so be it. I don't much care as long as it was worth my time to do so. And in my opinion, cover1 material has been worth it so far.

I can't tell you how much more comfortable i felt with Tate back there fielding kickoffs and punt returns as opposed to when the Bills had McKelvin back there.

I second this. Cover1 posts immediately get my attention.keep up the good work.

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