You have to earn “trust,” in any aspect of life, don’t you? The conditions of the “trust tree” aren’t much different in professional sports.
Some organizations are so well run and established, with an infallible brand, that you just assume when they make a move in free agency, or reach at their league’s amateur/college draft, that they will get it right and they know what they’re doing. And even if it doesn’t work out (no pro sports executive bats 1.000 or anywhere close to it), it doesn’t necessarily stick in a negative capacity.
Isn’t Bill Belichick that right now? Brief stays by Albert Haynesworth, Chad Ochocinco and Shawn Springs are regarded as missteps, but not costly ones. The New England Patriots missed a chance to get more for backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, and yet, despite the acquisition of what’s going to end up being quite a high second-round pick from San Francisco, we all shrug and say, “It’s the Patriots, not perfect, but they must know what they’re doing.”
Then there’s the Buffalo Bills. It’s where trust is non-existent with their supporters, or even their longer-term players or alumni, who’ve seen constant hirings and firings of front office personnel, coaches and administrators.
So when a team currently holding down an AFC wild-card spot as Buffalo is, at 5-4, blows up its starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor to play a mildly promising fifth-round pick in rookie Nathan Peterman, it’s fair to ask questions, and it may be more fair to theorize that it’s quite crazy.
You aren’t winning playoff games unless the defensive talent and skill positions are considerably above average. Are they? Not yet, but the building blocks are starting to take shape, even this early on, and in trading players like Sammy Watkins and Marcel Dareus, the Bills are freeing up cap space to make more astute and less flashy adds to both sides of the ball.
Taylor isn’t going to wow you with his deep throws, and though he’s thrown only three interceptions this season (a rate of 1.2 per 100 throws), he has been sacked at an alarmingly high number (28) — only Jacoby Brissett, Matt Stafford and Josh McCown having been sacked more.
So I can listen if you say Taylor isn’t taking Buffalo to the Promised Land, or going to a Pro Bowl, or ever getting sized for a jacket in Canton. But I’ll tell you this much: the move does tell you Sean McDermott is absolutely behind this decision and is 100 per cent in charge, to more of a capacity than probably any head coach the Bills have had since Marv Levy. Yes, especially Rex Ryan.
But the timing? It reeks of dysfunction. I understand thinking there may almost have been an internal sense of a plan that the Bills would have “not minded” a 3-13 season to reset their quarterback future at the draft. We all would have shrugged our shoulders if Taylor had been cut, traded or benched at any point in time in 2017 before the first 2 or 3 weeks of the regular season.
But then the wins started coming fast and furious. Home against Denver, on the road against the NFC champion Atlanta Falcons, 64 points combined in back-to-back triumphs over Tampa Bay and Oakland. All of a sudden, at 5-2, the Bills looked as real as they’d been since that 1999 season (also mildly dysfunctional given the Rob Johnson/Doug Flutie QB controversy).
This QB switch feels rushed and forced. Taylor didn’t play well the last two weeks in a road loss to the New York Jets and, of course, last week at home against a New Orleans Saints defensive front that’s making life hellish for each and every NFL quarterback since Week 2.
Do the Bills do this if they’re 6-3 and not 5-4? I say no. Is Peterman playing Sunday if the game against the Chargers is at Orchard Park instead of in a half-empty stadium in L.A.? I also say no.
The Bills saw an opportunity to let Peterman play his way into NFL starter status on the road for two straight weeks because they’d fear the home crowd wouldn’t be backing him enough if the rookie struggled. You can challenge me on that, but I’ve seen enough Bills paranoia in nearly two decades to feel quite secure on this one.
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Taylor isn’t their guy, but did you need to let the world know before the season ended. The Bills surely knew in late April that he wasn’t when they owned the No. 10 overall pick in the NFL draft and could have selected any of Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, or even DeShone Kizer. Now, even losing all of their remaining games means the Bills can’t dive deep enough at 5-11 or 6-10 to get one of the best three college quarterbacks available, which means spending assets like accumulated picks or current players in an attempt to do so.
I’m sorry, the truth might be somewhere in the middle between a total mess and a well-functioning team, but teams don’t do what the Bills did this week and get away with it, unless there’s a track record. The Giants could do practically anything with Eli Manning, or San Diego with Philip Rivers, or even Cincinnati with a quarterback who’s actually started four playoff games in Andy Dalton, and any decision — cut, trade, bench — would be more sensible and respected than this one in Buffalo.
If it’s truly about the long-term in Buffalo, they didn’t have to figure that part out in Week 11 of the season. And this move, believe me, was celebrated by the Raiders, Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, all of whom might have found themselves squeezed out by Buffalo for a playoff berth if Taylor continued to start.
Again, two sides of the same argument could have truth to it. Buffalo wasn’t winning Lombardi Trophies with Tyrod Taylor, but they sure botched the potential to give their fans a winning season with this decision.
