Tyrod Taylor agrees to new deal

One of the biggest questions of the 2016 season has officially been answered by the Buffalo Bills.

The 27-year-old, who in 2015 had the second-highest single-season passer rating in Bills history, was entering the final year of his contract and set to make just over $1m – the lowest in the league among starting quarterbacks.

According to Ian Rappaport of NFL.com, Taylor has signed a long-term deal with the Bills.

The team announced the new deal on Friday afternoon, but did not disclose details of a new contract. The more telling figure will be the guaranteed portion of Taylor’s deal, which has yet to be reported.

That gives Taylor an average annual salary of $15 million, just south of the Andy Dalton contract described in the story below. “I’m still here to get better and try to help the team win football games”.

Talks between the two sides heated up by last weekend, when Taylor’s agent appeared at Bills training camp in Pittsford, N.Y.

Taylor had a strong first season as a starter with the Bills after spending four seasons as a backup with the Baltimore Ravens. He came into the season as the starter, throwing for 3,035 yards, 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. The fleet, elusive Taylor was also lethal as a runner, time and again bailing out the offence on a designed run, or with a timely scramble.

He did miss two games with a knee injury.

That was more than enough for Buffalo to lock up Taylor long term.

That said, Whaley has shown a track record of taking chances, whether in the draft or in free agency.

General manager Doug Whaley called Taylor “undeniably the leader of the Buffalo Bills”. We like working with Tyrod, we have faith in Tyrod, the coaching staff has faith in Tyrod, but most importantly, the team has faith in Tyrod and Tyrod has faith in himself. And Tyrod has faith in himself.

“We looked at it as we have a quarterback now”, Whaley said.

The new contract comes a day before the Bills host the Indianapolis Colts in their first preseason game of 2016.