Tyrod Taylor is having a career season, and Bills head coach Rex Ryan knows it. As a first-year starter, his quarterback has a 104.3 rating, fourth best in the NFL. He also has 318 yards on the ground and three rushing touchdowns.
Taylor may be surprising some with his 2015 stats, but Ryan is not one of those people. He had a feeling he would see big things when giving the quarterback an opportunity to run with.
"I think first off, the numbers are what they are," Ryan said. "I know our record is 6-6. I think he's 6-4 as a starting quarterback. He's the fourth-rated quarterback in the National Football League, so I think that will tell you he's a pretty decent quarterback. He's got the combination that you look for with an athletic quarterback, a guy that clearly being the fourth-rated quarterback can throw the football but he can also bring more to the table. He can run with it as well, so he's a dual-threat run and pass guy. Very smart young man and great work ethic and has taken over some leadership as well with this team.
"What peaked my interest about being a free agent, I was actually with the Jets three or four years ago when I was interested in signing him with the Jets then, but we couldn't make it happen. Finally got the opportunity, and I told him I'd give him a chance to be the starting quarterback, even though his other team guaranteed him a backup job and all that stuff, and he went with us because he wanted to compete for the starting job. He won it."
Earlier this week, head coach Chip Kelly compared playing Taylor to Panthers quarterback Cam Newton because both have the ability to run the ball. Ryan was very happy with that comparison.
"Chip knows. He's had quarterbacks like that, that run ability and things," he said. "Man, it's tough. It's tough to defend because with everything you do, you better be ready for well, what happens if the quarterback keeps it? Those are things that it brings to the table as well.
"This guy is the fastest quarterback in the league, and now are we going to run him 50 times? No. You could probably run the kid in Carolina 50 times as big as he is, but we're certainly not going to run him that much. Tyrod certainly is an explosive talent, is really a great athlete and is a hell of a kid too."
To hear Rex Ryan's full conference call, click here.
