Rex Ryan and his Buffalo Bills may have a bunch of guys on the roster listed as quarterbacks, but they’re still desperately searching for somebody to claim the position, throwing names against the wall to see if any stick. And the latest to get tossed up there is Tyrod Taylor.
Taylor has largely been a non-factor through his four-year NFL career, a low draft pick out of Virginia Tech with just 35 career passes and none when it mattered. But there he was in the first week of OTAs sharing first-team reps with former first-round pick E.J. Manuel and recently acquired Matt Cassel, a seasoned veteran the Bills traded for this offseason.
“He is an unknown, never played a whole lot in Baltimore. I think the ability is hard to ignore, some of the things that he has,” Ryan said of Taylor, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
“I think they all have something to prove. How they’re going to be in this system, we’re going to find out. Some quarterbacks flourish in certain systems and I believe all three guys will have a chance to be successful. I hope that’s the case. And hopefully that decision is going to be tough, on a good note, not that this guy wins it by default.”
Ryan had promised as much, and was as good as his word. And shocking, there are those at One Bills Drive who seem to think Taylor is good enough to play.
“The way they’re structuring practices, everyone is getting a run with the ones,” Bills GM Doug Whaley told the team website. “So it’s a fair shake. In this system that we’re trying to figure out who is going to be the number one, it’s all about competition. That’s why everybody involved is excited about it.”
The athletic, mobile Taylor was a sixth-round pick in 2011, and spent his time in Baltimore as Joe Flacco’s backup, going 19 of 35 for 199 yards and two interceptions in garbage time duty.
But Ryan and quarterbacks coach David Lee were enamored of Taylor’s speed and athleticism back when they were with the Jets, and tried unsuccessfully to bring him to Gang Green. Now Ryan is with the Bills and Buffalo brought Taylor in as an under-the-radar unrestricted free agent in March.
Ryan has always wanted a dual-threat quarterback in his ground attack — obviously not just Tim Tebow. Expected on the outside to just be another warm body and spare arm during OTAs, some on the inside think Taylor could start when the Bills open Sept. 13 vs. Indianapolis.
“We looked at him hard when I was with Rex with the Jets. He’s got that uncommon speed, man, at our position. So this guy is exciting to all of us because he has that dimension of, ‘Hey, I can beat you with my legs and not just my arm,’ ” said Lee. “I think he has a beautiful throwing motion and I just have to think we’ve got to see how accurate he is. He’s in this competition as much as anybody to get the starting job.”
Ryan also added another quarterback he’s familiar with, signing ex-Jet Matt Simms. The Bills released Jeff Tuel and added Simms, a Bergen County, NJ, native and son of Giants Super Bowl winner Phil Simms, who’d been a Gang Green backup the past two years.