Out With the Old, In With the New: Welcome, Tyrod Taylor
The Browns front office sent fans and the media into a frenzy with a firestorm of moves Friday evening. After declaring this new regime will be a successful one and a “sleeping giant” will be woken, new General Manager John Dorsey is putting his stamp on this team.
Coming off an 0-16 season, only the second such season in NFL history, Browns fans were clamoring for the team to desperately find a new quarterback as the group of incumbents all played a part in the winless season.
Say no more.
2015 Pro Bowl QB, and Super Bowl XLVII winner, Tyrod Taylor was traded from the Bills to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the team’s 65th overall pick in the upcoming 2018 NFL Draft. Now Taylor isn’t Kirk Cousins, his list of potential teams to join does not have the Browns on it, but he is an upgrade from A.J. McCarron.
Despite three years in the league, albeit backing up a Pro Bowl QB in Andy Dalton, McCarron has just three starts under his belt, leaving the rest of the league with questions on if he can sustain the short amount of success he experienced filling in for an injured Dalton in his rookie season.
Meanwhile, Taylor has experienced quiet success since taking over the starting job of the Bills in 2015. In three season since, Taylor has thrown for 51 TD passes while only throwing 16 INTs and earning a QB rating of 92.5. Taylor also has the ability to use his legs when needed, rushing for an average of 525 yards per season with 15 career rushing touchdowns. Throw in three fourth quarter comebacks and five game-winning drives and Taylor is easily more successful than any recent Browns QB.
Taylor is the epitome of an average quarterback as his Bills barely had winning seasons under his tenure and did not win a playoff game, but he will make the perfect bridge QB the Browns are looking for while hoping to draft and develop another play-caller behind him. Have Taylor, with Josh Gordon and new weapons on both sides of the ball, lead the team to an average of 7-9 wins every season until whoever the team feels will be his successor is ready to take over under center.
Taylor may not be Cousins, but being an experienced QB with repeated success during the regular season, he is actually what the team needs given the current state they’re in.
A couple years from now, fans will be able to brag about being a Browns fan as the team prepares to make its first playoff appearance since 2002. Maybe that winning season that has long eluded us comes sooner rather than later.
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