The Buffalo Bills made the playoffs last season, but that wasn’t enough to keep quarterback Tyrod Taylor with the team.
Now a member of the Cleveland Browns, Taylor didn’t hide how aggrieved he was that the Bills did not see fit to retain his services. It’s quite clear that he feels a bit bitter toward former coach Sean McDermott, jokingly asking a reporter who covered him in Buffalo if the coach knew he was at Cleveland camp.
“Whether I was or whether I wasn’t, I’m not there anymore. That’s his decision moving forward,” Taylor said, via Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News. “I still feel that I’d done more than enough to stay where I was. But at the end of the day, they made a decision to move forward. And that’s their decision.”
Taylor clearly feels he played a major role in helping the Bills evolve into actual playoff contenders after the longest drought in American sports was broken last year.
“It was special to be a part of a team last year that was able to break a 17-year (playoff) drought,” Taylor said. “We didn’t finish the season the way we wanted to, but at the end of the day, we were able to change the culture. That was something that I set as a goal for the team. The main goal, to win a Super Bowl, wasn’t accomplished, but we were able to do some very special things in the three years that I was there and I have nothing to regret or to hang my head (about) in my time there. There’s nothing to be disappointed about.
“We were able to be in the playoff hunt each year. My first year, we knocked the Jets out of the playoffs the last game. We were eliminated the week before, so (the Bills were still alive for the postseason until the) second-to-the-last week of the season. But that was something that wasn’t necessarily the case prior to the time that I was there.”
Taylor and McDermott clearly didn’t quite end up on the same page. After all, Taylor was benched despite leading the team to a 5-4 record, only to take the job back after his backup turned in a disastrous performance. You can see why Taylor would be a bit upset, but it was time to move on for everyone.
