After a solid 2015 season, Tyrod Taylor has even more room to grow
Tyrod Taylor, after spending his first four NFL seasons as a backup in Baltimore, began training camp last summer third on the Buffalo Bills’ quarterback depth chart, behind E.J. Manuel and Matt Cassel.
It wasn’t long into the regular season that the 2011 sixth-round draft pick had a nickname – “T-Mobile.”
Taylor’s freakish athleticism led to 568 rushing yards, second in the league among quarterbacks to Cam Newton. His four rushing touchdowns were third, behind Newton and Jameis Winston.
How good was his 2015 campaign from a fantasy perspective? As with most running QBs, that depends heavily on your scoring system. Where touchdown passes count for six points, he was 12th in the league (among regular starters) with 22 fantasy points per game played. When TD passes are four points, Taylor was seventh, with 19.2 – ahead of Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck.
And the scary thought is he has room to grow.
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The Bills were cautious with their first-year starter. They had the second-fewest pass attempts in the league, and the second-most rushing attempts. Greg Roman’s offense was 26th in seconds per play. So Taylor’s passing volume has nowhere to go but up.
He also can expand his range of throws. Taylor was one of the top deep passers last season; he was third in air yards per attempt, and 18.2 percent of his passes went 20-plus yards, the highest ratio in the NFL. That skewed his overall yards per attempt to 8.0, fifth in the league, but that’s the most erratic aspect of a passer’s game. Imagine if he becomes a more complete quarterback and utilizes the whole field more, while still making plays with his legs and deep throws.
Fantasy owners and mockers so far this summer aren’t counting on such a leap, or even repeating his 2015 numbers, for that matter – he’s the 18th quarterback off the board, on average.
There are reasons to be cautious. Taylor needs to protect himself better when running; a horse-collar tackle on a 24-yard scramble resulted in a sprained MCL and two missed games. He will surely get hurt again if he doesn’t slide more.
Taylor has a budding star to target in Sammy Watkins, but the Bills’ other weapons are mediocre. If new addition Reggie Bush catches passes like he has his whole career, Buffalo’s offense would have a whole new dimension, but Roman has never been one to involve his running backs heavily in the passing game.
And it wouldn’t necessarily be in anyone’s best interest to make Taylor a gunslinger. His interception percentage was fifth-best in the league, and that would certainly increase if he threw more, and to more dangerous areas of the field. Buffalo’s offense is expected to still revolve around its deep backfield.
While his fantasy points averages were technically QB1, you want your starter to be more consistent. Taylor enjoyed four games with three touchdown passes (two games with four total TDs), but eight weeks with one or no total touchdowns. In a passing league, he didn’t have a single 300-yard day through the air.
While I wouldn’t advise waiting to make Taylor your first quarterback drafted, I think 18th is too low. His upside and rushing ability make him the top QB2 on my board.
Keith Kraska is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Keith, check out his archive.
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