Peterman gets the nod because Tyrod Taylor was set up to fail

Tyrod being denied the run has hurt overall offense

As watchful Bills fans, we’ve come to understand that Taylor is a mediocre passer, but elite runner through his two and a half seasons as commander and chief of the offense.

According to PlayerProfiler.com, Taylor is in the 99^th, 97^th, and 98^th percentiles among quarterbacks for his 40 yard dash, burst (measures vertical and broad jump), and agility score, respectively, yet he is averaging his lowest rush attempts per game this season under Dennison.

To illustrate how Taylor’s effectiveness has deteriorated as his rush attempts fall, consider the following data obtained from Pro Football Reference and ESPN.com:

• 2015: QBR= 66.3 (8th), passer rating= 99.4 (8th), Rush att. per game= 7.43
• 2016: QBR=62.4 (9th), passer rating= 89.7 (18th), Rush att. per game= 6.33
• 2017: QBR= 51.2 (19th), passer rating= 91.4 (16th), Rush att. per game= 5.89

Note: QBR shown is total, not raw, the difference being total is adjusted for quality of defenses faced

And, not surprisingly, the Bills’ offense as a whole has followed suit:

• 2015: yards/game= 360.9 (13th), rush yards/game= 152 (1st), total points= 379 (12th)
• 2016: yards/game= 354.1 (16th), rush yards/game= 164.4 (1st), total points= 399 (10th)
• 2017: yards/game= 292 (28th), rush yards/game= 111.6 (15th), total points= 184 (21st)

To fully comprehend the argument that Tyrod Taylor can be effective as a quarterback, it is helpful to understand the differences between the two most common statistical evaluations of the position, those being the traditional “passer rating” and the “Total QBR.” The latter was developed by ESPN back in 2011 and was designed to be a more comprehensive indication of a quarterback’s impact on a game.

The passer rating, which remains the official statistic for measuring quarterbacks’ performances, is based on a simple formula that measures a quarterback as only a passer and takes into account completion percentage, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions per attempt.

However, it ignores the other ways in which a quarterback contributes to their team winning or losing including rushing, fumbles, sacks taken/avoided, pre-snap penalties, defenses faced, and game context among other factors which the QBR formula understands and alters the rating accordingly.

More from BuffaLowDown

• Buffalo Bills were ready to trade back if they couldn’t get Dalton Kincaid
• Grading Buffalo Bills drafting Dalton Kincaid in 2023 NFL Draft
• How the Buffalo Bills can win Day 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft
• Buffalo Bills having conversations about trading for DeAndre Hopkins
• Buffalo Bills Draft Rumors: Bills linked to this shocking first round target

In a nut shell, QBR assigns a point value to each play based on its outcome and adjusts how much credit the quarterback should get whether the play was good or bad for the offense.

For example, a quarterback would get, say, 5 points for throwing a ball while under duress that carries 25 yards into a small window during the 2^nd quarter of a competitive game.

However, he may only get 2 points for a 25 yard screen pass thrown under no pressure in which the receiver ran 24 yards after the catch during the 4^th quarter of a blowout.

The rational for this is that in the first scenario, the play’s outcome was much more dependent on the skill of the quarterback and was at a critical point in the game whereas in the second, the quarterback simply dumped the ball off during “garbage time” and the ball carrier did most of the work. The passer rating would treat these two plays equally in assigning the quarterback credit while QBR distributes it among the players involved accordingly.

This process occurs for each play and is averaged over all the plays in which the quarterback was involved (so, not hand offs to backs) and is transferred to a 100 point scale with 50 considered an average performance.

By no means is a QBR the end all be all in terms of evaluating a quarterback, however, I think it’s probably the best single statistic currently available despite it incorporating a certain level of subjectivity. (ex. Who is to say how much duress the QB was actually under during that particular play?)

For a more comprehensive explanation of QBR, see the following link.