BarleyNY

Correct.

It's to indicate to other teams that he was not playing to his maximum ability late in the season. It's a simple "Hey, he's better than what you saw late last season. He'd have done better if not for the injury (and due to crappy coaching)." Doesn't matter how true it is or isn't. His agent wants teams putting the blame for the problems with Taylor on the injury (and coaching). He wants them thinking Taylor can be a quality starter for them - and he wants to get him paid like one. If the injury was serious, then we'd be hearing about how the Bills are going to be on the hook for his big bonus. But we're not.

1. I don't think the Pegulas botched the firing. Rex was going to try and win the last game, which meant starting Tyrod. Whaley and the Pegulas wanted to protect themselves from the injury clause and make sure Tyrod didn't get injured. The HC decides what players start and play, not the GM or owner so Rex had to go. Realistically Taylor has no trade value with his current contract, but I guess you never know. 2. EJ gets the start and Cardale likely gets time on the field. It'll be good to see how he's coming along. As for Lynn, I'd think he has enough to do this week. I'm sure he'll get an interview, but it'll be after Sunday. 3. Pettine is a good DC, but he's not HC material. Word from Cleveland is that once the veteran players figured out he was in over his head and didn't know what he was doing, they tuned him out. Thus his quick exit.

Yeah, we don't need to do that again. We can just agree to disagree here.

Why would Lynn keep Tyrod? He's obviously okay with not starting him today. Why would Tyrod stay? Please refer to this post of mine:

Yeah, I hope his mascara is waterproof.

The Bills will have a new HC in place long before Tyrod's bonus is due (3rd day of new league year). So theoretically the new coach could want him retained, but I don't see that happening. The new coach is going to want his own guy, not the last coach's guy.

I don't think Whaley tries to bring Tyrod back under a new deal, but it is feasible. Here my question: Why would Tyrod come back? Are the Bills going to offer the most money? Because he likes it here so much? Let's not forget that the Bills will be pulling a huge contract out from under him and that he just got benched from not only the last game of the season, but also from the last week of practice. How do you think he is feeling about that? Oh, and the coach that wanted him here and made him the starter just got canned.

Just to clarify, the game you're talking about is the one they needed to win, but lost. Sorry, no bonus points for "essentially" winning anything. No way does a team undermine their starting QB by sitting him unless he's injured or they're resting him in week 17 to protect him for the playoffs. Neither is the case here. His benching is to protect the team from the injury guarantee in his contract. There is no other logical reason.

EJ is gone. Taylor is gone. Gonna have to deal with it at some point, people.

True, except that clause is standard in HC contracts.

There have been players' coaches that have had success, but you've got a point about Rex not holding his players accountable and failing to instill the necessary discipline in them. Belichick has his players' backs 100% and he treats them all the same. As long as they follow his rules and do their jobs, he takes care of them. If they get out of line or put themselves above the team, he puts them in line or sends them on their way. Rex just let the players do as they pleased - including actions that hurt the team - with no repercussions.

The Bills will get a comp pick if they don't sign a qualifying FA, which is nice. Good call on that. No way any team picks up his contract though.

Teams cut overcompensated assets all the time. Tyrod will be cut for this reason.

Zero chance of trading Tyrod. No team will take him with that contract even if draft compensation is negligible.

The fact that they're sitting Taylor is proof that they aren't picking up his option. I give Whaley credit for doing this.

Nope. And nope. Again, Vick was never a great QB, but Taylor isn't as good as Vick was. And again, it really isn't all that close. And please don't call Taylor accurate. He has a nice sideline deep ball he throws with accuracy, but he's not accurate anywhere else on the field.

No, he's not. And it's not that close. And it's not like Vick was even a great QB.

I suspect that Rex wanted to win and that meant playing Taylor. The Pegulas and/or Whaley most certainly wanted to protect themselves from a Taylor injury and the financial burden that could mean. They also probably don't mind an improved draft position. That means benching Taylor. In fact, that means making him inactive for this last game. My bet is that this was the problem. Rex was looking for a win at the potential expense of the Bills future. The Bills were worried about their future, not Rex's. No way does that have a negative impact on our next HC hire.

I'd tend to agree with you, but I hold out hope for one thing. That is that I hope Whaley was against the Ryan hiring and that he was asked to tailor his draft and FA acquisitions to Rex's wants. I certainly do not think that a certainty, but I hope he made some poor/questionable decisions due to being told to follow directions from Rex. I'd be very much behind him if I learned he was against the Rex hire, it it was forced on him - along with some other decisions.

Not a bad way to go next season. For this season we're looking at a bridge QB and a day one or two draft pick.

I'm giving Gundy the benefit of doubt here. I'm assuming this thread was a joke.

You're right. Taylor hit Clay in the end zone on 4th down and 6 from the 7 for the TD. That put the Bills up by 3. I remembered that the Bills went up by 3, but was wrong about how. I'll revise my previous post.

You don't know what you're talking about. Vick was not a great QB, but his prime was about 8-10 years long and he was way better than Taylor at passing and rushing. Vick had over 1k rushing yards one season and 900 another. Seriously, you should educate yourself so you aren't so laughable and so you don't have to use so many ghost accounts.

I can't imagine why you think he's grown, or how. If he's auditioning for anything, it's a shot at making another roster.