Quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s future in Buffalo has been a frequent topic of conversation this week.
When Bills coach Rex Ryan discussed Taylor’s play and future with the team on Monday, he said “let’s just let this play out” before correcting course a bit on Wednesday and calling Taylor, who has seen his numbers decline in several key areas from last season, an “outstanding quarterback.” Taylor faced his own questions on that front on Wednesday and cut the session with reporters short after saying criticism of his play “doesn’t affect me emotionally or physically.”
It was General Manager Doug Whaley’s turn on Friday. During an appearance on WGR 550, Whaley’s response sounded a lot like Ryan’s initial comment about taking everything into consideration.
“You got to look at the whole season,” Whaley said, via ESPN.com. “He’s got four more games to write this chapter. And then after this season, like everybody on the team, we’re going to do the evaluation, and we’ll go from there. But this season is one of those things where he’s done some things really good to get us to six wins. But just like everybody on the team, there are some plays that he wishes he could do over.”
The Bills have to make a decision about whether to give Taylor more than $30 million over the next two seasons early in the next league year, which makes the evaluation of where he is a crucial one for the franchise. They also need to confirm that Ryan and Whaley will be the ones making that evaluation, something that the next four weeks are also likely to impact.