While Tyrod Taylor won’t get any votes for MVP of the NFL, teams that underestimate his abilities as a dual-threat quarterback do so at their own peril. Same goes for NFL experts like CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco, who, in a recent story, pegged Taylor as the worst quarterback among the 12 signal callers playing in the postseason.
“He isn’t great within the confines of the pocket, and can struggle in a big way there, but he can change a game with his ability to escape pressure and make plays with his legs and his arm,” said Priscoe in his write up of the list.
Granted, Taylor doesn’t post the eye-popping numbers that Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, and Matt Ryan do, but Buffalo’s quarterback also doesn’t turn the ball over and is able to stretch defenses and keep plays alive with his legs, two valuable traits when the postseason rolls around.
For the season, Taylor passed for 2,799 yards, completing 263 of 420 passes (62.6 percent) with 14 touchdown passes and only four interceptions. His QB rating was 89.2, and Taylor added 427 rushing yards with four TDs while averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
Taylor certainly trails many of the quarterbacks on this list, but he definitely deserves to be ranked higher than Nick Foles, whose team secured the top seed in the NFC in spite of his erratic play down the stretch. After torching the New York Giants (and their sieve-like defense) for four TDs during a 34-29 win in Week 15, Foles tossed a pair of INTs against only one TD while struggling in a win over the Oakland Raiders and being shut down in limited time during a 6-0 Week 17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Bills (9-7) face the Jacksonville Jaguars (10-6) at 1:05 p.m. Sunday in a Wild Card clash at EverBank Field. Blake Bortles, the Jekyll and Hyde Jaguars QB who can look like an All-Pro one minute and Ryan Leaf the next, came in at No. 9 on Prisco’s rankings.
Here are Prisco’s rankings of the playoff quarterbacks:
12. Tyrod Taylor
11. Nick Foles
10. Marcus Mariota
9. Blake Bortles
8. Case Keenum
7. Alex Smith
6. Cam Newton
5. Jared Goff
4. Matt Ryan
3. Ben Roethlisberger
2. Drew Brees
1. Tom Brady