The Bills have all but driven around western New York blaring through loudspeakers that they wished Tyrod Taylor would go away. They turned up the volume again Wednesday morning, with new coach Sean McDermott doing the honors this time.
Taylor knows it, and as a smart guy with operable eyes and ears, he has known for a while. He can’t go anywhere this year. He’s under contract for next year, too — thanks to a restructured contract the Bills sweated out last offseason to avoid paying the injury-guaranteed $27.5 million due to him. Which, of course, they initially avoided by benching him in the season finale in favor of one of their legitimate quarterback mistakes, the now-departed EJ Manuel.
Now that he's here, at less money, under a coach who didn't sign him and who did draft the guy who's replacing him — but still under owners who have been the gold standard for ineptitude since they bought the team — Taylor is counting the days. You can bet McDermott, Terry and Kim Pegula and the Bills are going to find a way to get rid of him by next year.
The day that happens, Taylor should celebrate like it's Juneteenth. The rest of the NFL should, too — and it would if it showed any sign in the past year that it knows what it's doing when picking quarterbacks.
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If teams were that smart, a whole lot of them would be camped on Taylor's doorstep, waiting on the day the Bills either put him on the market or release him. If they could, this late in the season, a bunch of them probably would drive over their own starting quarterbacks with a Humvee in order to get to Taylor.
Texans, Broncos, Cardinals, Jets, Jaguars ... just to name a few that are still marginally in playoff contention.
Well, wait … that includes the Bills, too, doesn't it?
Yet here we are, starting off the Nathan Peterman era, crowning the fan favorite, anointing the fifth-round pick who is getting the chance in Year 1 that Taylor — the former sixth-round pick who sat for four years behind Joe Flacco in Baltimore — had to wait to get.
As Taylor himself told reporters Wednesday, nobody ever promised him fairness: "I don’t agree with the decision but this was the decision that was made," he said.
Nothing Taylor has done since last year has been good enough for anybody with the Bills. He's been told to play in a system in Buffalo that doesn't fit his strengths. He's as bereft of offensive weapons as any starter in the NFL; Kelvin Benjamin got exactly one game to become a force after arriving via the deadline trade with the Panthers.
The overwhelming reason the Bills got stomped into the turf on their home field by the Saints last week was the defense giving up nearly 300 yards rushing. But the stat that was spun throughout the football world Wednesday morning was Taylor’s 56 yards passing.
It all reeked of McDermott waiting for a chance to yank Taylor all season, and grinding his teeth through their 5-2 start because he had to wait longer than he had planned. The last two games — the loss to the Jets, when Taylor got sacked seven times, and last Sunday — finally gave McDermott the window he wanted.
If it's not what McDermott was doing, then he’s got a problem, because that's sure what the optics are. It serves his purpose of getting his people in place, as opposed to the Rex Ryan/Doug Whaley leftovers.
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It looks like it serves Bills management, too, since it has shown constantly that it sours on people, but expresses it in the clumsiest ways possible.
Taylor doesn't need that, and Taylor doesn't deserve that. Whatever team gives him a clean slate and a fair chance should be rewarded.
Meanwhile, good luck to young Peterman — may you get what you deserve, instead of what the Bills usually do.
