1billsfan

I think 90% here would take the gamble of drafting a QB with a top five pick in the 2018 draft vs going with Tyrod Taylor for the 2017 and 2018 seasons if given the choice between these two options. Forget even the 2018 draft, Cardale Jones has as much upside as any of the QBs in this draft, and with Prescott's success I could see the Bills being bold and deciding that they have, like Dallas, a great running game to support Jones' vs picking up that huge contract for a game managing average QB.

Having Jones being ready to become a starter is the very best outcome right now. Burning a 1st or 2nd round pick on another project QB is a highly rated, non-QB, rookie contract asset not being used. The draft will eventually tell everyone how they feel about Jones' shorter term chances.

IMO the only way you consider drafting Mahomes (if you want to draft him) is if you trade back a couple of times into the mid-20s and adding an additional 2nd and 3rd round picks (bringing the total to five in first three rounds). I say this because over-drafting a project QB as a top 10 pick seemingly never works out for the player or team. The weight of the expectations are often way too much. After the #10 pick, I see the Cardinals as the only team that is truly QB needy till you get to the Texans at #25. Be daring and bold, and if Mahomes gets picked before your pick (after trading back), your consolation prize is that you have 5 picks coming in the first three rounds, in a deep draft class. You've already got a developing QB prospect in Jones, and you still have the great QB class next year coming up.

I'm done with that type of QB. Done, done, done.

When you draft a QB in the first round you are marrying them for at least three years, not just having a "good time" for a night. BIG difference. I honestly don't get the Watson and Mahomes love here. These guys are the "run around and make stuff happen" type of QBs which rarely ever translates to the NFL game. I know the temptation is there because of the athleticism and competitiveness, but it just doesn't work in the NFL where you need such precision of all parts on offense. You need the QB to drop back, read the defense, and deliver the ball accurately where it's supposed to go. You need him to be just elusive enough to give himself an extra second or two sometimes. You don't need him running all over the field, and in turn having frustrated receivers never getting any semblance of a passing offense with a solid foundation. Yes, these players are exciting, but it only seems to work well in college, not the pros. For the guys wanting these run around QBs, why will it be different with them? Can you imagine them picking one of these guys and then clearly having a much better QB prospect staring them in the face with their first pick in the 2018 draft? I can totally see this happening. Just play Jones, who's "Rothlesburger" style of play has a clear path to success in the pros. Plus, you aren't married to him. You get a year engagement, and if it doesn't work out there seem to be high quality pro style QBs in the 2018 draft.

EJ never got over being a nervous player in general. Jones was laughing with Jet defensive players in his first regular season action. His non-nervous personality gives me comfort that his play won't mirror EJ in that respect. Cardale Jones is really the perfect one year option. Either he locks down the position and is seen as the other steal of the 2016 draft (Prescott being the first one), or he'll become the very cheap "bridge QB" to the 2018 draft where there's a lot of buzz about that QB class being a great one. As the OP stated, there's just no point in bringing in a game managing veteran as a starter to try to get to an 8-8 season. Let the kid play and if he doesn't have it, one year is not a long wait.

This is just the logical course of action if you ever want your team to become a real contender for the championship. Bills fans need to put their big boy pants on and deal with any "growing pains" of Cardale Jones' first starting season. Because if this team does goes in that direction, it's evidence of this franchise's real intentions to find a franchise QB that will get them to the top. Jones would be the first guy up, and if he doesn't pan out then a 1st round QB pick in 2018 would probably be the next guy. Please, no more Fitz, Orton or Taylor 8-8 record types. I heard the Jets were going to seriously consider starting Hackenburg this year. Sometimes you just have to trust that you drafted the right QB and play him when all the other options aren't good enough for a team with long term expectations of becoming great.

I think going with Taylor is knowingly settling for being an also ran team. The actual passing part of his game is too seriously flawed to expect anything more. Now, if you think Taylor can overcome these flaws and bring his game to another level, then I can see why you’d want him back. I don’t ever see Taylor elevating his game to becoming a consistent threat with his arm. As for you thinking that Cardale isn't ready for prime time, that’s just conjecture. If Trevor Siemian could give the Broncos competent QB play in his second season, then starting Jones shouldn’t be that big of an issue. Especially with the league’s #1 rushing attack. Even Jim Kelly said that he would have put Jones in the last three games of the season once the season was lost for good. I think fans are just too fearful of the unknown sometimes. You can't wait forever in today's NFL. If the QB you have isn't ever going to be good enough to win a championship, and you just have to move on from being mediocre, then it's next man up and that's Cardale Jones. Yes, that could end up meaning becoming the worst team. But that scenario is actually better than just remaining an 8-8 team, because you can draft a franchise QB to get you back to the top. So I would rather get to the business of finding the franchise QB and since they have Jones, start him to see if he’s a franchise QB. You don’t really know until he plays in real games. Taylor is so limited as a passer, I could see Jones out performing him as a passer in that most crucial part of being a starting NFL QB.

To start. Prescott, Wentz and Seimian showed that the jump to starter isn't as gigantic as NFL fans sometimes think it is. Jones said he was ready to start the last few games, so if he's clearly not overwhelmed and he'll be fine to start and let the true QB developing and evaluating begin.

This is the best thread post I've read here in a long time. There are two doors to go through...door one is go with 8-8 forever with guys like Fitz and Taylor, rinse and repeat...or door two, which is go with the combo of Jones and the QB who will no doubt be drafted high in either 2017 or 2018 (if Jones doesn't have it). I don't understand why door two wouldn't be the consensus for Bills fans at this point. Being average is pointless. Jones is ready enough and the fallback option of the 2018 QB draft class is only a year away.

Smith would just be a needless bandaid who would probably add insult to injury by winning enough games to take the Bills out of the running for one of the franchise QBs in the 2018 draft. Better to go with Jones and see if they have that franchise QB already on their roster. Given the hard schedule, if Jones doesn't show promise the Bills will have a high pick and probably a very good chance at finding their franchise QB in the 2018 draft.

I've come to the conclusion that I want Cardale Jones to start the majority of the games this season. If they want the veteran QB they sign (like Foles) to start a couple of early season games and ease Jones in, that's fine. I just don't like any of the QBs in the draft this year. Why draft another QB with question marks, when they already have one in Jones? This is what the Jets do. I also don't like any of the free agent QBs, they all seem like retreads. Really, what's the point of signing an average to below average free agent QB with wanting them to become the full-time starter when none of them will ever beat Brady and Belichick? If Jones plays great, the search is over. If he doesn't, they'll probably wind up with a top 3 pick in 2018 that's loaded with QB talent. You can't get caught up in worrying about playoffs this year. This team is in a rebuilding phase. Build the team up in the draft and let's get excited in seeing what they have in Jones. If Preskott, Wentz and Siemian can play well in this league, Jones has a decent shot to do so also. Especially with a great running game.

Signing Alex Smith is an NFL franchise putting up the white flag on ever becoming a real threat to win an NFL championship. If the Bills move on from Taylor, they aren't going to sign a QB who's only slightly better. If they move on from Taylor, they'll no doubt be looking for a young QB within these next two drafts and have him and Jones battle it out.

No way would Belichick move forward with a running QB who can't pass the ball in the middle of the field, and seemingly misses open receivers with regularity. If you can't get the job done then you're gone, no matter how good of a guy or teammate you are.

It's not hard to imagine that if Bill Belichick left the Patriots and took over the head coaching and GM duties of the Bills, he would not pick up Taylor's option and he would not sign Gilmore to a top five CB contract.

That's kind of ridiculous. If you aren't ready after red shirting a full year then he will never be ready, ever. At the beginning of the 2017 season Cardale would have had 24 games worth of watching (4 preseason and 16 games of the 2016 season, and 4 pre season games of the 2017 season). At that point it's time to play in real games and really start the learning process. On a side note, imagine the 2 point conversion rate with Jones. I imagine he'd be a monster on goal line and those type of situations. Bull dosing in, using him as a blocker on reverses, 4th and 1.

Did you know at the 21 games started marker, Odell Beckham had 21 TDs. That's nearly twice as many as Sammy Watkin's 11 TDs (who's started 21 games so far in his career)? Even WHEN Watkins is starting, Tyrod Taylor doesn't know how to get him the football. You're using excuses. Taylor simply is not a good enough QB to take this team to a contending level of play that everyone expects. Great guy, he just isn't great at the one thing you want your QB to be great at, passing the football.

I think the argument boils down to three potential paths... 1. Start Cardale Jones 2. Draft a QB at #10 and start him 3. Pick up Taylor's option I think Taylor's not in the Bills plans because this team needs the cap space to build the team around the future young franchise QB. So that leaves option #1 and #2. With option #1 you get a very long look at Jones and there are two forks off that option. If he plays great, the search is over! If he doesn't play well, you will probably get the opportunity to pick a QB very high in the 2018 draft, in a draft where the QB prospects appear to be much better than this year's class. With option #2 you are stuck playing the 1st round QB pick from this year's poor quality QB draft. There will probably be no real look at Jones ever.

Geez, can you let Cardale Jones play before you write him off? You literally wrote that as if it was a lock that Jones is totally going to suck. Trever Siemian, Dak Prescott...it's really not that unheard of for young QBs drafted past the 2nd round to play decent to very well.

You're totally projecting your very low opinion of Cardale Jones onto the Bills decision-makers. The Bills drafted Jones in the 4th round. Do you think they did that just for kicks? Do you think the Broncos were tanking because they decided that a 7th round pick (#250 overall), second year player was going to be their starter? Is it that much of a shock that the Bills decide that they want to see if Jones can play and decide to go with him as the starter? Trusting that their coaches can ease him into the job early on with run heavy game plans? That starting a young QB is not tanking, it's truly the nature of the NFL beast if you don't happen to go free agent vet QBs year after year? Teams that do that are losers. Teams that want to be winners eventually start young QBs to see if they have it or not.

I think that your expectations, along with a lot of other Bills fans expectations, are just unrealistic. This franchise has been languishing for a very long time. They've just changed over the whole coaching staff, they literally have the 4th toughest schedule in the league next year. What are your expectations with Tyrod Taylor starting? Seriously. These next two years are about figuring out who the true franchise QB is for the long haul, and what players you want to surround this franchise QB with, which will give the team the best chance for long term success. First guy up is Jones. If he fails, then the Bills will have an excellent chance to draft their long awaited franchise QB in 2018. Taylor just doesn't fit the long term model because he's a known quantity. He's not a franchise QB. He is and will always be a limited starting QB who will give you average production because of his ability to run with the football. That's never going to get it done for a consistent run at contending for championships.

Great post. Some fans need a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate that the average to below average QB Tyrod Taylor can deliver. Some fans are ok with trading the dream of being great for the security of just not becoming the Browns. Hence the longing for Tyrod Taylor to be the starting QB. It’s kind of shocking how scared fans are of starting Cardale Jones. This is NFL football. If you can’t get it done, it’s “next man up”. IMO Taylor’s a finished product and he’s clearly not good enough (even his biggest supporters admit this). This team took Jones in the 4th round, he red shirted the year, in early December coach Lynn said that Jones “is what you want waiting on the runway”, Jones even said that he was ready, Jim Kelly said that he would have started Jones the remaining 3- 4 games. There’s way too much over-thinking here. Some fans make the NFL into rocket science. The only way to know if Jones truly has it is to start him (as with all QBs drafted not named Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck). What was the point of drafting Jones last year if they weren’t going to play him (if Taylor failed to prove himself of picking up the option). The natural progression is to start the second year player Jones in 2017. Anything else is just being timid. What if he fails? So what, they’ll have a top 5 pick in 2018, a draft loaded with franchise type of QBs. The flip side is if Jones is the real deal, you've finally found your franchise QB.

The next couple of years is about finding a real franchise QB for the franchise. The record truly isn't the top priority. Be that Cardale Jones, a rookie QB drafted this year or a rookie QB drafted in 2018, they will try to get the QB position locked down after 20 years of it not happening. Now having said that, if they add Romo, then it's is all about the record and getting into the playoffs.

You seem to think the Bills decision-makers should care more about outside perception of the team and ticket sales rather than making smart decisions. That’s the small, short-sided thinking that has been doing in this franchise for the last 15 years. Sometimes you’ve just got to do the right thing, even if it means knowingly signing on for a year of discontent at the QB position. Taylor, Watson, Trubisky are all just feel good band-aids IMO. Hopefully the Bills decision-makers will have the guts to acknowledge that none of these QBs are the answer, the only QB they will draft or sign on for long term will be the QB they think is the answer, and until then build the roster up for that franchise QB that they hope will either be Jones, or the franchise level QB would be drafting just a little over 14 months from now. After 17 years, that should be a piece of cake.

It’s not tanking, it’s making sound business decisions in building your team the proper way. You can’t be expected to always go for the gold when the landscape and schedule just isn’t realistically there for you to do so. You don’t force yourself into making risky decisions like using a ton of cap money on a mediocre QB like Taylor, or burning a 1st rd QB pick on a talent poor or highly questionable class. It looks like there’s going to be about 3 maybe 4 true franchise QBs in next year’s class. The sound decision is to sign a cheap free agent QB, then hope Jones will be ready to start a significant number of games (8-10?) to take over the starting duties from whoever that veteran QB is. Whatever long shot Jones is, at least you’ll have a chance (no matter how small that chance is) that he shows he’s got the “it” factor and he’s going to be the long term answer. That Bills schedule is literally one of the toughest in the league. There’s no need to make rash or risky decisions so that it doesn’t look like you’re tanking. This team is a 6 or 7 win team with Taylor starting. Make the proper decisions with the QB position that will get you to the top 3 or 4 years from now. Just remember, the Bills are already behind the 8 ball with teams like the Raiders, Titans who have Carr and Mariota (even eventually the Colts with Luck). In the next couple of years, you’ll have a bunch of teams that have aging QBs (Steelers, Giants, Saints, Chargers, Cardinals, Vikings) who’ll be getting back into the QB market soon. I think there'll be a mad dash for QBs in the 2018 draft. Best to at least be in the range of getting one than winning two more games with Taylor and then having to burn 1st round picks to move up. If you aren’t in position because Cardale Jones turned out to be the steal of last years draft, then you don’t have to worry about it!