Tyrod Taylor Has No Reason To Restructure His Awful Contract With Buffalo Bills

Tyrod Taylor is clearly not in a giving mood. The Buffalo Bills quarterback signed a six-year, $92 million deal last August and reportedly has no interest in restructuring it to help his team out. Taylor is due $30.75 million guaranteed in 2017 if the Bills pick up his option on March 11.

The quarterback free agent market is incredibly thin right now, so the Bills would probably prefer to re-work Taylor’s deal and roll with him next season. But Taylor and his agent know that and are certainly going to play hardball.

Frankly, this is on the Bills. They signed Taylor to an awful contract in August and are paying the price now. If they release him, there’s no guarantee they will find an upgrade and if they keep him he’ll eat get $30.5 million guaranteed. Bear in mind we’re talking about a quarterback who played in 15 games and posted incredibly average numbers in 2016. He completed 61.7 percent of his passes for 3,023 yards, with 17 touchdowns and six interceptions. His passer rating was 89.6 and he also added 580 yards and six touchdowns rushing.

Again, those are average numbers for an NFL quarterback. Taylor isn’t “bad” by any stretch of the imagination. But six months ago did the Bills really believe he would be worth $30.75 million in 2017? If so that team has deeper issues than what it is paying its quarterback.

Maybe the two sides can work out a deal that guarantees some of the later years on the contract and defers some of the money, but right now Taylor has no reason to believe Buffalo will cut him. They have no other alternative. If he was cut and hit the market, Taylor would immediately become the top quarterback available and rake in a significant contract anyway. He’s in a great spot, while the Bills are not.