- It’s time for the Bills to bench Tyrod Taylor and install Cardale Jones as the starter, ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak opines. The Bills, of course, have to decide on Taylor this offseason and it would behoove them to know what they have in their young backup. “He’s working hard,” offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn said recently of Jones. “He’s a gunslinger, strong arm. You watch him in scout team, we evaluate his reps in scout team. He’s putting the ball in the right places. He’s accurate. I think his development is coming along fine.” Recently, GM Doug Whaley insisted that he won’t be turning things over to Jones, but things could be different after yesterday’s loss to Pittsburgh. The Bills are now 6-7 with slim odds of reaching the postseason.
Tyrod Taylor will have at least one more week to attempt to convince Bills management he is capable of being the team’s long-term answer at quarterback. The Bills will start Taylor against the Browns, Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com tweets.
Categorizing Taylor as the player who gives the team the best chance to win, a conclusion he did not announce after the Bills’ loss to the Steelers on Sunday, Rex Ryan will continue to use Taylor as his starter, just as he has throughout his Buffalo tenure.
The 27-year-old quarterback is slightly off his 2015 pace, completing just more than 60 percent of his passes, with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. Last season, the run-centric signal-caller completed over 63 percent of his throws and paired his six picks (in 14 games) with 20 touchdown tosses. The Bills boast the second-worst passing offense in football at 183.5 yards per game, and Taylor’s passer rating sits at 85.6 — in the lower echelon of the league and nearly 15 points lower than his 2015 figure.
Last week, GM Doug Whaley did not give Taylor his full support for 2017, when the franchise has a seminal decision to make regarding his status. If the Bills were to pick up Taylor’s 2017 option, they’d be kickstarting a new five-year deal worth more than $80MM. Given the franchise’s issues at finding a consistent answer at quarterback since Drew Bledsoe‘s exit after 2005, moving on from Taylor might not be that simple. Although the former Ravens backup is averaging 6.2 yards per carry — higher than his 5.5 mark in 2015 — en route to 471 rushing yards and six TDs, his 2016 passing performance leaves much to be desired.
“He’s got four more games to write this chapter. Then after this season, like everybody on the team, we’re going to do an evaluation and then we’ll go from there,” Whaley said.
Buffalo has expiring-contract backup E.J. Manuel and developmental rookie Cardale Jones behind Taylor, who if given the opportunity to keep the team’s quarterbacking reins through the end of the season will face the Browns, Dolphins and Jets.
The final month of the regular season will dictate the playoff futures for teams like the Cowboys, Patriots, Chiefs, and Raiders. For other teams, the postseason is a statistical impossibility. Already, the Jets, Jaguars, Browns, Rams, Bears, and 49ers have been mathematically eliminated. The Chargers, Saints, Panthers, Eagles, Bengals, and Cardinals are not technically out of it, but their chances are remote.
Here’s where those teams and the others not currently ticketed for the playoffs stand in the draft order (Note – Ties are broken by strength of schedule):
- Browns 0-13
- 49ers 1-12
- Jaguars 2-11
- Bears 3-10
- Rams 4-9 (pick belongs to Titans)
- Jets 4-9
- Panthers 5-8
- Chargers 5-8
- Saints 5-8
- Eagles (pick belongs to Browns) 5-8
- Cardinals 5-7-1
- Bengals 5-7-1
- Bills 6-7
- Colts 6-7
- Titans 7-6
- Vikings (pick belongs to Eagles) 7-6
- Packers 7-6
- Redskins 7-5-1
- Ravens 7-5 (Note – The Ravens play their Week 14 game tonight against the Patriots.)
- Dolphins 8-5
Strength of schedule via SB Nation.
After a resurgence in October and November, the Bills again are dealing with turmoil. A report earlier today placed Rex Ryan‘s job in jeopardy, with CBSSports.com’s Jason La Canfora saying the second-year Buffalo coach could be fired as soon as Monday if the Steelers easily handled the Bills.
Today’s 27-20 home defeat probably doesn’t quite qualify as such — Le’Veon Bell‘s 238 rushing yards that doubled as the most ever ceded by a Bills team notwithstanding — but Ryan fielded plenty of questions about his job status postgame. Predictably, the embattled coach said he hasn’t had any conversations with ownership about his job status and that he remains unaware of potential tenuous nature of his position, Mike Rodak of ESPN.com notes. Ryan also said the narrow defeat to the Steelers should allow him to remain in his current position, Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com reports (on Twitter).
Also addressing the issue of a potential schism between he and GM Doug Whaley, Ryan insists the two are indeed on the same page and committed to winning in western New York, per Rodak. The Bills dropped to 6-7 and are likely set to miss the playoffs for the 17th straight season, which remains the NFL’s longest postseason drought.
- Tyrod Taylor‘s stock is also plummeting after Whaley did not commit to him as the team’s surefire quarterback next season. Ryan told media “we’ll see” if Taylor will remain the starter in the Bills’ final three games, per Rodak. The organization is also not pressuring Ryan to play rookie Cardale Jones, via Rodak. Taylor sees the organization as still being behind him. By sticking with Taylor — who entered the day commanding the worst pass offense in the league — next season, the Bills would kickstart an $80MM+ contract that still stands as a wait-and-see-type deal as of this season.
Rex Ryan is exceedingly unlikely to return as the Bills’ head coach in 2017, and if the club suffers an embarrassing loss to the Steelers later today, Ryan could be fired as soon as Monday, a source tells Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. If Ryan is let go, Buffalo would likely promote offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn to interim head coach, according to Tim Graham of the Buffalo News.
[RELATED: Bills GM Refuses To Commit To Tyrod Taylor]
The Bills could still finish the 2016 campaign strong, and with four winnable games remaining on the schedule (Buffalo is set to face Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami, and New York), the club could win out, finish with a record of 10-6, and compete for an AFC wild card slot. Such a scenario remains unlikely, however — Football Outsiders gives the Bills just a 9.9% chance of making the playoffs — and Ryan’s crumbling status in Buffalo appears to have deeper roots than simply the team’s win-loss record.
Per La Canfora, the relationship between Ryan and general manager Doug Whaley is heavily strained, and Whaley may hold the upper hand given that he’s developed a “strong bond” with team ownership. Whaley and the Buffalo front office have repeatedly indicated that the Bills’ roster is better than its record, laying blame for this season’s results at the feet of Ryan, and have shared that belief with owner Terry Pegula. The Bills have seemingly decided against the idea of hiring a “football czar” to oversee operations — a role that Bill Polian and Tom Coughlin have been considered for in the past — meaning Whaley’s job should be safe.
Other personnel and coaching staff problems abound, such as the poor reaction to Ryan’s decision to hire his brother — longtime NFL defensive coordinator Rob Ryan — as a defensive assistant. Additionally, the Buffalo front office would like to see fourth-round quarterback Cardale Jones take the field at some point this season, as the club is highly unlikely to exercise its option on incumbent signal-caller Tyrod Taylor.
We heard several days ago that Bills GM Doug Whaley was unwilling to commit to Tyrod Taylor as the team’s starting quarterback of the future until after the season, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports that no talks regarding who will be the team’s 2017 quarterback have taken place. The Bills’ decision-makers appreciate that Taylor has just 26 career starts to his name, and they will evaluate his entire body of work–including the final four or more games of 2016–with that in mind.
If they decide Taylor is their man, the Bills could pick up his 2017 option, thereby kickstarting a new five-year, $80MM+ deal, or they could redo his contract to make it more palatable, which Rapoport believes is the more likely option. If Buffalo moves on, Rapoport expects the team to be active in the veteran quarterback market with a possible eye on Tony Romo. Jay Cutler and Colin Kaepernick also could be on the Bills’ radar.
- The Bills promoted outside linebacker Bryson Albright from the practice squad, Joe Buscaglia of WKBW reports (on Twitter). A UDFA from Miami (Ohio) University, Albright has spent the season on Buffalo’s taxi squad and has yet to play in an NFL game.
- Bills GM Doug Whaley says he does not want to see rookie quarterback Cardale Jones to play at any point this season (Twitter link via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com). “That would mean something terrible happened,” the GM said. The 6-6 Bills have had issues in the passing game, but they apparently won’t turn things over to Jones over the final month. Whaley raised some eyebrows today when he declined to commit to Tyrod Taylor for next season.
The Bills have a big decision to make at the quarterback position this offseason. When asked about whether the team will retain Tyrod Taylor for 2017, GM Doug Whaley told WGR 550 that no decision has been made (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak). He added that he will sit down with coaches and ownership after the season to make the call. 
“He’s got four more games to write this chapter. Then after this season, like everybody on the team, we’re going to do an evaluation and then we’ll go from there,” Whaley said.
The Bills have a tough call to make. On one hand, quarterbacks aren’t easy to find. On the other hand, the Bills currently have the league’s worst passing offense. Taylor had a strong 2015, but keeping him beyond this year will mean kickstarting a new five-year, $80MM+ deal. If the contract is exercised, the Bills would be on the hook for a whopping $30.75MM fully guaranteed at signing.
All in all, Taylor’s deal was drawn up to be a team-friendly pact if he built on his trajectory from 2015. But, given that he has been up-and-down this year (and mostly down as of late), the decision has become much more complicated. Further muddling the situation is the questionable job security of Whaley and Rex Ryan. Whaley says that he will make the call with Ryan and the Pegula family, but the GM and coach may not be at the table if the Bills cannot qualify for the playoffs.
The Bills are now 6-6 after an ugly implosion against the Raiders. Buffalo likely has to run the table to get to the postseason and that means they’ll have to beat the Steelers on Sunday and the Dolphins on Dec. 24. On the plus side, their other two games come against the Browns (Dec. 18) and the Jets (Jan. 1).
Today’s practice squad moves:
Buffalo Bills
- Signed: CB Charles Gaines
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: S Justin Currie
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: S Stefan McClure
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: TE E.J. Bibbs
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: OT Rob Crisp
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: CB Brandon Dixon
San Diego Chargers
- Signed: CB Randall Evans