Buffalo Bills Highlights | Tyrod Taylor 2016

03/20/2017

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Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor didn’t have the season that most fans expected, but he still led the 10th-ranked scoring offense in the NFL. Taylor passed for 3,023 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. To no one’s surprise, Taylor also led the league in rushing by a quarterback with 95 attempts for 580 yards and another 6 touchdowns.

His passing game did not progress as expected, and a lot of that had to do with the injury to star wide receiver Sammy Watkins and the lack of playmakers at the position behind Watkins. Taylor must be in a system that schemes players open or be surrounded by playmakers for him to take that next step.

Taylor played conservatively, and it makes you wonder how much of that had to do with his contract situation. He took very few chances. However, he did what he does best — made plays with his legs. He held onto the ball and extended plays longer than anyone in the league. Sometimes that led to pressure by the defense, but that’s when Taylor operated at his best. According to Pro Football Focus, Taylor was third in the NFL in touchdowns while under pressure, with 10. Only Rogers (12) and Luck (11) had more. This was pretty special, considering he was under pressure 41% of his drop backs, the fourth most in the league, behind Luck, Kaepernick, and Wilson. His 80.1 QB rating was the sixth best in the NFL under pressure, but he took incredibly too many sacks. His sack percentage was 19.4%, the fourth highest in the NFL, and a lot of those were plays in which he was outside of the pocket but failed to throw it out of bounds.

Taylor leaves a lot to be desired through the air, but new offensive coordinator Rick Dennison believes that he can maximize Taylor’s talent, something that we saw flash a lot of in 2016.