ESPN’s John Clayton Feeling Optimistic About Tyrod Taylor
By Ryan Brennan
Before the 2016 season began, ESPN’s John Clayton wasn’t sure if Tyrod Taylor was right for the Buffalo Bills. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
ESPN’s John Clayton always has something to say about the Buffalo Bills’ situations and he has been doing it all year long.
It started during training camp, when Clayton didn’t really have anything good to say about the Bills’ quarterback or head coach situation. Then, he started to give us a little slack after he went through and named each NFL team’s blue-chip players.
If you want to see what Clayton had to say about our QB and coach situation, click here.
If you want to see which players he chose as blue-chip players on the Bills’ squad, click here.
Live Feed
GMEN HQ
He’s back at it again, this time raving about the play of Tyrod Taylor and showing extreme optimism for his future. With the Bills’ option on Taylor at the end of the season, many fans are wondering if he’s even the guy they want on the Buffalo Bills.
John Clayton completely shut that down — and I completely agree with him — and even shut down the possibility of the Bills going after a veteran quarterback like Tony Romo in the offseason.
"“You don’t want to get older at quarterback. You want to get younger and better,” said John Clayton. “If you let Tyrod Taylor go, you don’t know if that next hit will knock out Tony Romo for his career. He’s missed so many games over the past three years… He went to Seattle, and the first hit in the preseason on him he’s out for 10 weeks automatically. He’s got a bad back, he’s had a broken collarbone twice. He may be right physically towards the end of his career. So do you want to take a chance somebody who’s at the end or somebody who you can build on and grow. It’s still just a matter of working the talent around Tyrod Taylor. I think right now you keep him, but who’s making the decisions? Is there going to be a change at coach? Is there going to be a change at general manager? My read is that’s not going to happen now. I think both guys are safe, and if both guys are safe, I think you stick with Taylor.”"
John Clayton also stated that Tyrod Taylor received high praise from the Seattle Seahawks after their Week 9 Monday Night Football matchup. Here’s what Clayton said about that:
"“If there’s any debate about the quarterbacking future of Tyrod Taylor, stop. They said he was as hard to handle as a running quarterback as anything they’ve seen. They just raved about him. They said he was a supreme challenge, he was good, he’s gained their respect. Remember, this is a defense and a team who will rip you. If they don’t like you, if you’re Michael Crabtree, if you’re Colin Kaepernick, they will rip you. They will give you their honest opinion. They came out with high reviews of Tyrod Taylor.”"
In my opinion, Tyrod Taylor has grown a lot this year and has adjusted to all of the distractions and injuries to his teammates very well. Many fans are concerned about his passing numbers, but when you look at how much LeSean McCoy, Mike Gillislee and Taylor run the ball it’s easy to understand why he’s not throwing for 300 yards every game.
It’s time to accept that he’s our starting quarterback and allow him to grow with this team, this head coach and this general manager. We’ve continuously brought in a number of great, young defenders. If we can start doing that with our receiving corps, it would do wonders for this team.