The Buffalo Bills are playing on Monday Night Football against the New England Patriots tonight, and the agent for starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor made sure that the general NFL fan populace tuning in tonight knows a critical detail of his client's contract: that a year can be voided. ESPN's Adam Schefter passed along that detail this morning.
By playing tonight, QB Tyrod Taylor should ensure he plays 50% of Buffalo’s plays this year, voiding last year of his contract, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 23, 2015
Practically, this means that barring a season-ending injury tonight, or some other unforeseen circumstance, Taylor will very likely enter 2016 in the final year of his Bills contract. Which will, of course, spark up conversation about Taylor's future in Buffalo.
Taylor is 5-2 as the Bills' starter this season, and has often times provided quarterback play at a level Bills fans have not seen in years. Depending on how Taylor finishes the season, his (possibly new) contract and fitting it into the Bills' salary cap are going to be very complicated and difficult issues for the team to overcome. That's the best-case scenario, both for Taylor and the Bills.
As it stands now, Taylor will almost certainly receive a minimum play-time incentive for 2015 of $250,000, which reaches $1 million if Taylor takes 80 percent of the snaps. To date, Taylor has missed 25.7 percent of plays, having been injured for two games, so the $1 million bonus seems possible if he stays healthy. Even if he misses another game or two, however, that 80 percent threshold could be missed.
For his playing time in 2015, Taylor can earn an increased salary in 2016; right now, Taylor's salary will increase at least $250,000 via an escalator, with the same $1 million maximum for over 80 percent playing time.
If Taylor is able to lead the Bills to the playoffs, both the 2015 incentive and 2016 salary escalator would double. We can all hope Taylor is able to make himself a bit richer this year.