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Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor is off to an impressive start this season, there's no question about it. He has been highly efficient and productive in his first three starts with the Bills, accounting for eight total touchdowns in helping to lead the Bills to a 2-1 record at this point.
While others are quick to point out that Taylor is doing things no other Bills quarterback has done before - or hasn't done since Jim Kelly - Taylor's efforts in September took your author not back to the franchise's glory years, but to 2011. That's the year that Ryan Fitzpatrick won AFC Offensive Player of the Month honors in September as the Bills started the season 3-0. (He won that award four years ago today, as a matter of fact.)
Taylor won't be winning that award in 2015 (thanks for that one, too, Tom Brady), but his numbers do stack up very favorably with what Fitzpatrick accomplished four years ago. As of Week 3, Taylor is the NFL's sixth-highest rated passer, just as Fitzpatrick was after three games in 2011. (Taylor is actually fifth if you take Kellen Clemens and his six passes for San Diego out of the equation.)
| Player | Com | Att | % | Yds | Y/A | TD | INT | Rate | Run | Yds | TD |
| 2011 Fitzpatrick | 72 | 111 | 64.5% | 841 | 7.6 | 9 | 3 | 103.5 | 10 | 20 | 0 |
| 2015 Taylor | 58 | 78 | 74.4% | 714 | 9.2 | 7 | 3 | 116.1 | 17 | 96 | 1 |
There is no intended negative subtext here; these 2015 Bills are a much more talented and better all-around team than those 2011 Bills, so I'm not trying to predict crushing demise by way of this comparison. That's true at the team level and between the players; we all know how the rest of Fitzpatrick's 2011 campaign (and his Bills career) turned out from there, but he did not have as much support as Taylor currently has. Taylor may not be asked to fully carry the offense at any point like Fitzpatrick was under Chan Gailey, either.
While we consider how good Taylor has been thus far, and contemplate how good he might ultimately be (it's a heck of a lot of fun to do), however, let's not forget that we have seen three games' worth of excellent quarterback play in Buffalo much more recently than the days of Kelly - and that there's still an awful lot of football left to be played this season. Taylor has a lot on his plate this week as he tries to sustain his early momentum while facing the possibility of playing without both LeSean McCoy and Sammy Watkins.