grb

I grabbed the quickest stat I could find (from ESPN) : League-wide, quarterbacks took 2.48 seconds to get rid of the ball in 2015. That number has gone down for four consecutive years. And there does appear to be the makings of a trend. Twenty quarterbacks were at 2.5 seconds or quicker last season; only seven hit that mark 2012 I seem to remember Taylor was the slowest of the slow in 2016, clocking in at 3.22 seconds. So if he can't "process the field" in under five seconds, no wonder he barely ever completes a pass and constantly throws interceptions. As an aside, the same ESPN article has Dalton, Brady and Peyton as the top three fastest (in 2015), starting at 2.20 seconds. It's a sign of the razor-sharp margins of high level athletics that there's only a second's difference between most lightening fast and slowest sluggard. It's like the Olympics, where the same athletes win time & again - but always in margins of a tenth or hundredth of a second. How can such a margin consistently exist?

Quote : "What he hasn't shown the ability to do yet, is do the above consistently, or to put the game on his shoulders and carry the team when the defense isn't playing well and we find ourselves in a shootout, or when we are playing from behind neutralizing the benefits of our run game." Strange that people would try to make the above case when just two games back is an example which refutes every single point about what Taylor "hasn't shown the ability to do yet".

As I recall, the last regular season game TT played before this one, the Bills did not "stake themselves to a lead", the defense was not "playing well", the team was "in a shootout", and Taylor found himself "playing from behind". Are all the cliches exhausted? Good; let's review what happened : Taylor found himself in a game where the Bills were behind by 14 points at three separate times, and he brought them back every single time - finally taking the lead at under two minutes with a 4th&Goal TD pass. Buffalo had 589 yds of total offense, Miami had 494. That, I believe, qualifies as a "shootout". Despite leading the team to a lead at under two minutes, the Bills lost. Their defense was not "playing well"

Item : Gugny loves the kid Item : Gugny wants to believe in him Item : Gugny isn't rooting for him to fail Item : Gugny would love to be able to stick with Taylor and not draft a quarterback Item : Gugny is full of (insert scatological obscenity here) Of course you already knew that last one, right?

Heck, I remember last year he audibled before completing a plus-minus forty yard pass - to Goodwin I believe - not sure of the game. Don't you wonder about the mentality of people who pretend believing Taylor can't audible, or say he isn't even a starting quarterback? It seems to go beyond mere trolling to some weird psychiatric obsession.......

With a few more breaks - or a few less injuries - the Bills could have gotten in the playoffs last year. That was (please remember) with a crappy defense often collapsing into full meltdown mode. If they hadn't thrown it away with Miami and given it away with the Jets, I think only one other game had to turn right. So on the face of it, to say the team needs a super elite defense to reach the playoffs seems counterfactual & strange. If I had to guess, the "logic" goes like this : Evidence notwithstanding, Taylor is a very, very "bad" quarterback. Evidence notwithstanding, all "bad" quarterbacks need a super-elite defense to make the playoffs. Ergo, the Bills need .... etc, etc, QED.

Honestly : Wasn't my point at all. I just wonder whether someone like Taylor gets a reputation for leaving plays on the field, so people naturally see those plays when they might not looking at other players. And I assume it has to be a common thing. NFL "time to throw" ranges from about 2.5 to 3.25 seconds, with Taylor a notable sluggard last year. A lot of seeing and deciding has to fit into those fleeting seconds.

Is Taylor really the only quarterback to leave "throws on the field"? I don't claim to know, but would guess it's a phenomena like human vanity or folly : You find it wherever you trouble to look.......

The usual. We have the face-off between : The Pro-TT crowd, who believe the glass is half-full. The Anti-TT crowd, who deny there's a drop of water in the glass, deny the glass exists, deny the very universe the glass sits in. Not a lot of common ground there, huh?

I'm not interested in arguing the point whether Cam is "elite" However it is interesting to look at Taylor's averages from two years starting : 62.7% completion 3029 yds 7.45 yds per attempt 19 tds 6 interceptions Are they "elite"? Nope. Are they worse than Cam's? For the most part, yes. But you say Cam is elite while Taylor is nothing more that a backup. Actually, you said Taylor could make it as a backup on "most teams" - how many you didn't specify. I don't see that much of a difference between the numbers.......

If so, can I order a dozen?

Of course not. It would make your "starter" comment look even more ridiculous. Taylor's floor is somewhere in the upper part of the bottom third of quarterbacks in the NFL. Until the league clones thirty-one Aaron Rodgers, that makes Taylor a starting quarterback. That's this year, next year, and the year after.

To answer your question : Yes, it seems wise to wait a few weeks before we begin to rank qbs this season. Now, my question : Have you decided Taylor is more than a back-up yet? Before Sunday, I believe your opinion was TT isn't talented enough to remain a starter in the NFL. Perhaps one week of football was time enough to rethink that?

If we're back on the Miami game, Taylor brought the team back three separate times from two touchdown deficits before finally taking the lead - off a fourth down touchdown throw. It's been hater gospel that Taylor can't lead the Bills back from behind, but somehow that bit of dogma is forgotten when discussing that game.

Actually, I think Taylor is : Grilled Nilgai Antelope with Caramelized Apricots, Apricot Agri-doux, Glazed Couscous, Ginger Infused Apricot Puree, Asparagus Tips and Red Wine Jus, Perhaps served with a Nobilo 2014 Icon Pinot Noir And an order of buffalo wings on the side.......

I guess there's a certain unpleasant logic to that. Still, we're getting dangerously close to the bad old days when this board was roiled over the question : Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Awfully fond of sushi, but I'm damned if I know which quarterback that links me to.

Exactly. As soon as I saw SaviorPeterman & TaylorTime duking it out, I thought this is a cage match waiting to happen.....

Taylor is 10th in QB rating, but that includes Jacoby Brisset (7th), who has thrown three passes, and Sean Mannion (3rd), who has thrown one pass. But Sean completed his one pass and who can argue with perfection?

"Tyrod gave us no other option...." Behind that curious turn of phrase is an agenda, eh? Why do I imagine you saying that thru gritted teeth.......

Let's see : A few plays over the middle Some really nice throws A few bad throws Some plays left on the field You just described every single quarterback in every single game yesterday. Almost all qbs throw less over the middle; Taylor has been criticized for lagging a few percentage points behind his peers. Likewise, every quarterback whiffs on a few throws and leaves plays on the field. I sometimes think Bills fans don't watch other qb play with the same critical eye they use on their own guy. One of the networks was running a sidebar rolling list of the best quarterback numbers of the day - by yardage. Sure, Taylor was buried way down the list, but there were a lot of gawdawful performances above him. His numbers actually looked pretty good. I'll take it a step further : One of the major debates this offseason was whether a subpar set of receivers (or losing your prime target) affects qb play. This would seem obvious, but a lot of people insisted "Tom Brady doesn't need receivers." Well, watching Thursday's game I thought even god-like Brady looked like he needed receivers. Watching poor Eli struggle last night I thought maybe qbs do suffer when their main guy is out.

I don't doubt you've seen it before, given what you describe fits 15 of the 18 quarterbacks whose first game of this season is already in the can (I combined the two Texan's numbers). Except for the "under 30 passes" part. Several QBs didn't average over eight yards an attempt and had over "30 passes" for their "under 300 yards"

This makes a lot of sense. The Bills could have easily "squeaked" into the playoffs the last two years with slightly better play, a few less injuries, and flipping a close game or two. They don't need a "historically good defense".

You want to see what trolling looks like? Claiming you "believe" McDermott is going to use Taylor much more as a runner than last season - because TT is incapable of throwing the ball - and you're "concerned" about his health. There's not a single part of that which isn't obviously crap. Also : If a supporter of Taylor says he's a "franchise quarterback" that's a sign the supporter isn't serious. Taylor still has way too much to prove. You want to see a sign that a critic of Taylor isn't serious? Saying TT is at most a backup. Even if this buffalo chip is sprinkled with sugar (adding he's a "high quality backup" - though not for all teams; only for most teams), it's just more trolling. Taylor's floor is somewhere near the top of the bottom third of starting QBs in the NFL. That's true today; it will be true tomorrow. He will remain a starter, on the Bills or elsewhere.

Three points : Taylor has been running successfully for two seasons now, and has missed two games - and those off a penalized tackle. Dead meat? He seems to have a pretty decent record of staying healthy. Whenever this shtick comes-up, someone always points out there's no statistical evidence running QBs suffer injury more than pure pocket passers. I'm doing so here. A lot of Taylor's most vocal haters are now suddenly "concerned" about his health. They don't seem to realize what a sordid spectacle they're making of themselves.