What is in all likelihood an impending divorce between the Buffalo Bills and quarterback Tyrod Taylor doesn’t sound like it’s going smoothly.
Taylor criticized his Week 17 benching as unfair and agreed with the perception that it shows a lack of faith in him.
“I didn’t see where it was fair. The opportunity was taken from me,” Taylor said Monday, via Matthew Fairburn of NYup.com. “That’s above me. That decision was made. I had to live with it and support my guys.”
Taylor also felt that the benching signals a lack of confidence from the organization.
“Um, I mean that’s fair to say,” Taylor said. “That’s what it showed. That’s what I think it showed. But at the same time, the conversation wasn’t detailed enough to know if that was the case or not. Hopefully we can have that conversation this week. Maybe it’s today. I’m not sure. We haven’t met as a unit yet, nor have I met with the people upstairs, so maybe it will be clear what’s the direction moving forward.”
Taylor said he had “no clue” why he was benched, saying nobody in the organization gave him a reason.
“I’ve heard that they wanted to evaluate the young talent that we have in EJ [Manuel] and Cardale [Jones],” Taylor said. “I’ve also heard things as far as the injury clause, which I don’t really put much behind that because that was the situation all year. Like I said, we’ll see what the real decision was.”
Reports indicated that the benching did have to do with the injury clause, namely the team not wanting to be on the hook for $30 million if he got hurt. Taylor’s comments are those of someone who’s a little bit hurt and confused, and this process seems to have become unnecessarily messy for the team.
