Buffalo Bills willing to pay Tyrod Taylor’s roster bonus to ensure quarterback position, per report

The Buffalo Bills might move on from Tyrod Taylor, but according to a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, they want their replacement in hand before doing so and it might cost them a pretty penny.

“At this point, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to cut him without knowing who his replacement will be,” Rapoport reported Thursday on NFL Up to the Minute Live. “The Bills are OK with paying a $6 million roster bonus just to keep him on the roster and we’ll see.”

Taylor is due the roster bonus on the third day of the league year. If he is released after the draft or even at the end of the preseason, he’ll have been paid that money already and it will be on Buffalo’s salary cap. But Buffalo will know they have an immediate successror so better safe than sorry, as it were.

Buffalo could be making a play, forcing other teams to make a trade for Taylor as Rapoport suggested February 15th. If another team was hoping Buffalo would cut Taylor early in the free agency process, the Bills could be forcing that team into making a trade in order to secure Taylor’s services by making these comments.

Buffalo also might be willing to eat the $6 million in roster bonus money to make Taylor and his one-year, $10 million contract more attractive to other teams.

There is a third option; Buffalo could genuinely be interested in keeping Taylor on the roster for 2018 as a bridge to a rookie.

Update:

Here’s Rapoport’s entire conversation on the show.