Former Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor made his regular season debut with the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. He quarterbacked the team for most of the game, but won't officially go down in the record book as the team's starter.
Tyrod Taylor with the great throw.. but amazingly because of where he lined up to start game.. won't get credit as being the starting QB— trey wingo (@wingoz) September 13, 2015
So Tyrod Taylor was lined up as a receiver on the first play of his first NFL start. #blest— Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) September 13, 2015
Either way, Taylor lit it up and dazzled the home crowd with his arm and legs en route to a 27-14 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Tyrod completed 14 of 19 passes for 195 yards (10.3 yards per completion), no interceptions and he threw a touchdown.
For his first NFL touchdown pass, Tyrod dropped a 51-yard dime into the outstretched arms of fellow 757 native Percy Harvin. It was described by the announcer as a "coverage beater", and it should put to bed any notion that Taylor is an "option" or "running" quarterback.
He also added 41 yards on the ground on 9 carries (4.55 yards per rush), and eluded defenders to avoid any sacks on the afternoon. Vintage Tyrod; he felt the pressure, evaded a sack and converted a third down near the end of the first half to move the chains.
Buffalo would finish the drive with a touchdown to go up 17-0 at the half.
David Teel wrote a banger of a feature on Tyrod that chronicles and recaps his path from Hampton High to the Bills. Read the entire piece, but this anecdote in particular is priceless.
Preparing for a 2007 road game at LSU, Virginia Tech's football coaches blared crowd noise and music inside Rector Field House, the better to simulate Death Valley's notoriously ravenous fans. To underscore the point, then-offensive line coach Curt Newsome pulled freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor aside.
Newsome: "Tyrod, it's going to be really, really loud down there."
Taylor: "Coach, I've played in the Hampton-Phoebus game."
"I still laugh about that," said Newsome, now Emory & Henry's head coach. "That's how unassuming he was."
Comments
That awkward moment where you made a $100 bet that Tyrod Taylor would be the starting quarterback one month ago #FuckYouRexRyan
IT WAS A 3RD and 31?!?!?
Because you can't watch this play enough:
I cannot watch that play enough. Both of the pixels in that video made me happy.
miss u tyrod
I have to reiterate what the TV commentator said...what's with that shirt? Anyway, so glad for him! I miss him and his talent. Great guy. Congrats and keep on chucking.
"Barbed wire is the new black"
When I first saw it, I thought he had a cut down basketball net around his neck. I was like "Ok, so he won the game and THEN the NCAA tournament??? Awesome!!!"
I was on the Bill's message board the whole game. Everyone over there is on the TT bandwagon. It's all "In Tyrod We Trust," "T-Mobile," "The Truth."
So happy for him.
Tyrod, you've had my full support from the day you set foot on campus, but brah, that shirt. You gotta at least throw for 4 TDs if you're gonna try to pull that off.
Is anyone else trying to read the article linked but it just redirects back to their homepage?
Are you on mobile? Sounds like mobile version shenanigans (or pay wall shenanigans).
EDIT: That particular article you need a subscription for. It has a little blue "+" symbol next to it.
I admit, iPhone spelled "shenanigans" for me.
I dropped Matt Stafford and picked up Tyrod at about 11.30 today. Felt like a genius.
It was weird seeing Tyrod lighting it up with both chin straps buckled. I remember back at Tech he usually had one just hanging
Do they play? Want to see the Bills crap on the Ravens now.
TYGOD
Just curious... his contract seemed incentive laden.... was lining him up elsewhere on the first play and thus have him not start a way for the Bills to manage their salary spend?
Well he still started for them and got a snap. I am not sure location matters as much.
It does for stats. Tyrod STILL has not started an NFL game at QB in the official records.
I believe, based on what I've read, that the contract is based on percentage of snaps played and performance. IT's possible that the "starting QB" might be the one whose contract made it beneficial for Buffalo to start him so that they don't have to pay some kind of benefit. Might be some sort of "if you're not the starter at the beginning of the season, we owe you X."
If I'm Matt Cassel I'm calling BS on that. I'm not starting, pay me my money.
It still doesn't make much sense to me. Cassel just completed a cut-and-resign.
Yea and I also don't understand how a contract would be structured to financially reward someone for not starting. The anti-incentive.
I believe the usual situation is "if you don't start me, you owe me money since it will make me look bad." I can't imagine Cassel has that, though.
Thats the only thing that makes any sense. But its kind of a d*** move, because you're circumventing the intent of such a clause, very publicly. Certainly in this event, Cassel and his agent will be having some discussions about why "starter" was defined in such a way where this was possible. Kind of like a finger in the eye to not start, then a kick in the arse for asking for such a clause.
Just hope Tyrod didn't lose any incentive money because he was not the QB starter of record.
Got choked up, just a bit, seeing TT play again.
auld lang syne
I just checked my guide, and it looks like the Bills/Patriots game is going to be on CBS in the Richmond area next Sunday. It's likely the CBS default game next week.
Vids aren't showing on my end. NFL c-kblock?
You can watch them on the YouTube page, but NFL won't let them be embedded.
Video says not available on YouTube so:
Glad he finally got his time to shine, and he beat a team that was in the conference championship last year! Hopefully he continues doing good things going forward and maintains that starting job.
Its probably already been said, but how awesome is it to see Tyrod in a #5 jersey again?? The media seems taken aback by his success, but no one in Hokie Nation is surprised. The guy is a winner. Period.
It's TT Time for the NFL. We all Know What Tyrod can Do, very Proud of this young man !
Rex Ryan has high praise of TT as well:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/14/rex-ryan-tyrod-taylor-ha...
My friend was thanking me for convincing him to pick up Tyrod in his fantasy draft. Next week is going to be a huge game for him. Hopefully it turns out just as good.
Did anyone else realize that his passing touchdown was the 757 representing? Harvin went to Landstown High in Virginia Beach.
Disregard that totally missed the first sentence.
He was ballin' out in that shirt.
Wasn't able to watch the game, but kept up with stats, as Tyrod is on one of my fantasy teams...will be evaluating Matt Ryan's performance tonight. It seems my team may have a QB controversy
I fail to see any controversy there.
It pained me to draft Ryan, then Tyrod fell into my lap in later rounds. Wanted to see how his first game would play out before pulling the trigger on him though
My league allows quarterback at the flex spot. I started Flacco over Tyrod. I think I have to turn in my hokie badge now.
As they like to say here, "F%$# Matt Ryan. Of course I never use that word.
Long-time lurker here, signed up for an account just now so that I could share this feature on Tyrod from my adopted hometown newspaper. It appears that Western New Yorkers are discovering what we've all known for a long time, that Tyrod is just all-around an awesome guy in every way imaginable.
BTW, my apologies in advance for the incredibly annoying website design. The D&C seems to go out of their way to make reading their articles as unpleasant an experience as possible. If you can get through all the ads, though, it's a really complimentary piece.
Roth: With crowd on his side, Taylor outshines Luck
It would have been pure gold if in his post game comments on TT, Rex had said "The guy has magic in his feet"
Ray Lewis referred to him as the human highlight reel after a preseason game. Regardless I think he rode the pine for too long, but that's a lot of time to throw some balls and get healthy. I see no reason why he won't have some level of success this year.
Tyrod is awesome but that shirt is awful.
Brady gave him some nice praise on the pregame show on supersports. Apparently he and Tyrod share the same birthday (11 years apart) and draft round.
Great to see him get a win against Andrew Luck. Kinda got some closure/revenge from the bowl game loss.
And even though he didn't play, Tyrod got the Super Bowl ring instead of crazy Harbaugh.
I have Peyton and Tyrod on my fantasy team, so no question as to who's starting.
Tyrod all the way!
I had Peyton the last two seasons, but after his decline in the second half of last season, I opted to stay away this year. So I picked up Aaron Rodgers in round one, and Tyrod in round 13. But I will have a close eye on Rodgers. At the very least, no one else in my league will be able to be a bandwagon fan.
I'm in the same boat. May give Peyton another week, kinda hard to bench the gunslinger but if he ain't getting it done.