The closing of the Buffalo Bills 2016 season has been rife with debate, controversy, and headlines.  Much of this talk surrounds the notion that an ‘average’ or ‘above-average’ quarterback like Tyrod Taylor cannot win the Buffalo Bills a Super Bowl. In an effort to check the legitimacy of this assertion, I conducted a statistical analysis comparing all prior quarterbacks who have led their team to a Super Bowl with Tyrod Taylor.

Below, you will be able to see a list of Super Bowl champion starting quarterbacks, chosen because their regular season stats (for the year(s) they won the Super Bowl) were comparable to Tyrod Taylor’s statistics during his two-year tenure with the Bills. Based on the results, I think one should question why the Bills are even thinking about releasing Taylor. Skeptical? Take a look for yourself!

As you can see,  Tyrod Taylor is better than, or comparable to, at least ten quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl. Combined, these ten quarterbacks have won a total of 16 Super Bowls, accounting for 32 percent of all Super Bowls won. This begs the question: how have so many ‘average’ quarterbacks managed to win a Super Bowl?

While conducting research and attempting to pinpoint the reasons why a team wins the Super Bowl, one stat has continuously popped up on paper.  About 60% of all teams that have won a Super Bowl have had an overall defense ranking inside the top five and 86% of all teams that have won a Super Bowl have had an overall defensive ranking inside the top 10. These stats naturally prove why the notion ‘Defense Wins Championships’ still lives in today’s offense-oriented NFL.

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