The Buffalo Bills are going with an unconventional choice as their starting quarterback, as unorthodox head coach Rex Ryan announced Monday the team was putting the offense on fifth-year pro Tyrod Taylor.
Now that Taylor is the starter in Buffalo, the question becomes can he be a useful player for fantasy purposes?
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Don’t let Taylor’s four years in the league fool you. The sixth-round pick in the 2011 draft has thrown only 35 passes in 14 games during the span of his career. He hasn’t even thrown a touchdown pass in four years with the Baltimore Ravens. Taylor primarily served as Joe Flacco‘s backup in Baltimore, but the Ravens opted to bring in a more established No. 2 in Matt Schaub to replace Taylor.
Taylor is a true dual-threat quarterback who often is more effective using his legs than he is remaining stationary in the pocket. At Virginia Tech, Taylor completed only 58 percent of his passes during the 2009-10 seasons. He threw for 5,054 yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions those two years. The intrigue with Taylor comes from his running ability. He ran the ball 501 times in four seasons for the Hokies, accumulating more than 2,000 yards and 23 rushing touchdowns.
The dual-threat quarterback is becoming increasingly popular around the NFL. We’ve seen quarterbacks such as Russell Wilson and Cam Newton post top-10 fantasy seasons using a mixture of their arms and legs. Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III also have been part of this transformation at the position, even if their most recent years haven’t been nearly as productive.
The formation these quarterbacks tend to thrive in is the pistol. The pistol usually involves the quarterback taking the snap about three yards away from center with a running back directly behind him and occasionally an H-back, fullback or tight end on either side of the quarterback.
Whether it be out of the pistol or shotgun, we should expect the Bills to present a pretty difficult challenge by using zone-read and read-option plays often. Taylor may have deficiencies as a thrower, but his running ability is undoubtedly dynamic. Combine this with the speedy LeSean McCoy in the backfield and the read option could present plenty of problems for opposing defenses.
There are plenty of drawbacks to running quarterbacks, however. Wilson was the only such quarterback to finish last season inside the top-10. He is also the best passer of the aforementioned bunch. Newton and Griffin exemplify the durability risks that come with mobile quarterbacks, and Kaepernick had an ugly year after opponents forced him to beat them by throwing the ball.
Taylor presents similar traits as the others in the mobile QB group, but his ability to execute on the field is a vast uncertainty. He isn’t getting much respect from our experts, who have him ranked as the 30th-best quarterback, behind players such as Blake Bortles and Derek Carr. The upside for Taylor is also limited because of the lack of weapons outside of McCoy and Sammy Watkins, as well as a questionable offensive line in front of him.
Taylor is likely too much of an unknown to be taken as a backup in standard 12-team leagues. He could be a stash option in two QB leagues or even a late-round flier in dynasty formats, but there are better quarterbacks with the same skill set out there who don’t present as much uncertainty as Taylor does.
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Matt Barbato is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Matt, you can view his archive or follow him @realmattbarbato.