Tyrod Taylor isn’t going down quietly
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is unhappy that the Bills benched him to close the season and is questioning whether he’s played his final game for Buffalo.
Taylor believes the move shows the Bills have lost confidence in him. He says he’ll have a better perspective on his future once he gets an explanation from team officials, but he said his job was “taken” from him, and he has “no clue” why.
“They made a decision last week to sit me for the last game of the season,” Taylor said, according to New York Upstate. “Did I believe that was fair? No, I didn’t.
“I didn’t see where it was fair. The opportunity was taken from me. That’s above me. That decision was made. I had to live with it and support my guys.”
Taylor revealed he is scheduled to visit a doctor on Wednesday to seek a second opinion on whether he’ll require surgery to repair a groin injury that has nagged him over the past month. Still, he felt he was healthy enough to play before the Bills, who fired Rex Ryan in the week leading up to the game, started EJ Manuel in Taylor’s place.
“I’ve heard that they wanted to evaluate the young talent that we have in EJ and Cardale [Jones],” Taylor said. “I’ve also heard things as far as the injury clause, which I don’t really put much behind that because that was the situation all year. Like I said, we’ll see what the real decision was.”
The “clause” is referring to a contract stipulation that if the Bills release him this offseason at a time he cannot pass a physical, they would owe him the $27.5 million left on his contract.
He spoke Monday while Bills players cleared out their lockers a day after closing the season with a 30-10 loss at the New York Jets. He was inactive for the game in a move interim head coach Anthony Lynn called “a business decision.”
The Bills signed Taylor to a five-year extension in August but retained the right to opt out of the deal by March.