Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

[Wally The Barber]

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By: Robyn Mundy | 2 hours ago

It didn’t take long for Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor to signal his approval about how coach Sean McDermott handled his first meeting with players at One Bills Drive after they started off season workouts on Monday. Taylor was effusive with praise for McDermott after spending most of the off season working out at the facility getting to know him.

“I think he (McDermott) did a great job and I also think that the team has definitely responded well to his talk this morning and his message for the team. It’s up to us to hold each other accountable throughout this offseason program and moving forward into the season and he made that very clear. Ultimately I think he did a great job and looking forward to seeing how this team progresses over the next couple of months into the season.”

Leadership is an issue near and dear to both McDermott and Taylor as they move forward after the Bills spent nearly two seasons drifting around in confusion, mediocrity and frustration under Rex Ryan. Although Ryan preached the importance of leadership, his policy of naming new captains every week during the season left the team seemingly without clear direction at times.

All of that is about to change under McDermott, who is instituting a “leadership council” and will have a clearly delineated chain of command where players have specific roles in terms of accountability to the coaching staff as well as to each other. McDermott spoke about what characteristics he looks for in assigning leadership roles.

“I think you look for a range of characteristics. Age is one of them. Experience – but that doesn’t just limit it to the older crowd, so to speak. You want representation from, really, the cross-section of the team and really guys that represent the whole team, not just certain parts of the team. I’ve been around it at the two different spots that I’ve been at – both Philadelphia and Carolina – I’ve seen it work well.”

The formation of a leadership council by McDermott was especially embraced by Taylor, whose quiet and serious personality seems to mirror his coach much more so than McDermott’s boisterous predecessor. Taylor explained why he thinks the leadership council is so important for team success.

“Very important. I’ve been on teams where we’ve had that in the past and seeing how players responded to that, it’s a way to get the message from the coach to the players’ locker room. I think that’s definitely something that’s beneficial and I think that it can be very important to our team in terms of getting the message over from the coaches.”

Taylor wasn’t alone in praising McDermott’s fresh approach to leadership. Veteran defensive tackle Kyle Williams also chimed in about the new leadership roles being defined by McDermott and how he plans to do his part in promoting accountability among players.

“In anyway that I am asked. Obviously there are pillars to careers, players-wise and pillars to careers coaching-wise. I think a lot of my philosophy and his philosophy is pretty similar. Hard work, discipline, doing your best everyday, trying to inspire your teammates, make them better. So I do everything that I have always done and more if I am asked. I will do it in a different way if I am asked.”

While it appears the fun ride the players had under Rex Ryan is now in the rear-view mirror, the players also seem to be responding in a positive way to McDermott’s more serious approach as well as the formation of a leadership council

[Historian]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

Good.

Now learn how to throw a screen pass.

[GarnOFreak]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

ok, I wanted to crunch some numbers since we all seem to think that the reason Tyrod's yardage is so low is due to his lack of ability to throw. But didn't Rex's team want to control the ball with a strong running game and efficient passing game, rather than a "greatest show on turf" approach? I figured I would look at the numbers and see what it said to me. That being said, anyone who has ever taken a statistic class can tell you, numbers can be made to say anything....

Last year threw I think the first 14 weeks we were dead last in total team passing yards and either first or damn near close to it for team running yards. We moved up a couple slots in the last two weeks of the season, but it wasn't hugely stellar showings, more than likely, other teams played worse than us, by just enough for us to squeak into 30th over passing at season's end.

Okay, here's some numbers to think about (2015/2016 stats will be side by side for comparison):
Completions and Attempts(295 of 465)/(286 of 474) We threw the ball 31st and 32nd in the league for number of attempted passes.
(we averaged about 29 passes a game for the last two years)
Percent of Comp 63.4% / 60.3% ranked 14th and 22nd among the teams, so middle of the pack, rather than dead last or first.
Average yards per pass though? It's gotta be low I thought. In 2015 we were 6th in the league with a 7.7 ypa tied with Panthers, Patriots and Redskins. Weird, hunh?
2016 numbers slipped a bit to 6.9 ypa which dropped us to 20th tied with Broncos and Raiders.
Seems like when we WERE passing it wasn't so awful, just that we didn't do it as much as we ran. Both years this conservative approach to play calling gave us +6 T.O.s
Big plays numbers? 51 plays of 20+yds and 12 of 40+yds in 2015 followed by 35 of 20+yds and only 8 of 40+yds in 2016.
There must be a larger number of big runs instead, right? 19(20+yds) and 4(40+yds) for 2015 and 27(20+yds) and 5(40+yds) in 2016.
Adding those up 2015:70 plays of 20+yds and 16 plays of 40+yds. 2016 added is 62 plays of 20+yds and 13 plays of 40+yds. Stay with me now.
If we add in more passes instead of runs to balance the offense more than we have the last two years, let's see what numbers would show. Keeping in mind that we're using the
same players we had with all the injuries, just throwing more and running less to see how the numbers would compare to other teams who did just that. I expect we will get
more Turnovers, but a higher total yardage.
both years the folks in the middle of the pack for Attempts averaged about 36-37 throws a game as opposed to our number of 29.
(highest number was about 42 each year by Baltimore, Saints came in second in attempts to the Ravens both years, who knew?)
So if we add 8 more attempts per game we would have shown 128 more attempts.
Recalculated numbers for 2015: 81 comp of 128 att for 624 yards, 6 TDs and 2 INTs. New totals of 376 comp of 593 for 3967 yards, 29 TDs and 11 INTs, now 15th in yards.
Recalculated numbers for 2016: 77 comp of 128 att for 531 yards, 5 TDs and 2 INTs. New totals of 363 comp of 602 for 3567 yards, 22 TDs and 9 INTs, now 25th in yards.
We have been running about 31-32 running plays per game, so I realize those numbers would have gone down. I just never realized how much we neglected the pass.
Between our WRs playing hurt or having to sign people off the street to fill the receiving corps, you would figure the efficiency at which we passed would be bad.
But honestly, with lower level talent out there on the field we still did decent (not All Pro level, but simply average). With better and healthier WRs, our numbers go up more.
So increasing our WR/TE corps this offseason should be a priority, not just for this year but for whomever we have sling the rock the next couple of years.

[Guest]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

I love these annual pre-training camp propaganda pieces designed to give the Bills fanbase fake hope.

The days that I believe this crap have long passed.

Hey Wally -- how's it hanging?

[JoeMama]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

I love these annual pre-training camp propaganda pieces designed to give the Bills fanbase fake hope.

The days that I believe this crap have long passed.

Hey Wally -- how's it hanging?

Can't stand these Bills-approved fluff pieces.

Going as far back as the late 90s/early 00s, every offseason a dozen Bills players would say of Rob Johnson: "He's walking around with that swagger, he's walking around like he's the leader of this team. This is his year!" Next day, it's a headline.

Repeat JP Losman. Repeat EJ Manuel.

We read the same **** with new names every year.

The NFL basically coaches these guys to be politicians when they're not on the field. "Lie your ass off and tell fans what they want to hear."

[Night Train]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

" We suck. I can't believe fans buy tickets to see us, let alone follow us "

Shockingly, that article got squashed.

[JoeMama]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

" We suck. I can't believe fans buy tickets to see us, let alone follow us "

Shockingly, that article got squashed.

That's what Jerry Sullivan is for.

[Novacane]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

I've heard it for 17 years. I'm so tired of talk. Please just give me results on the field.

[GarnOFreak]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

I know it was just preseason numbers, but odd to see where we placed for total yardage both on offense(9th overall) and defense(8th overall). Makes me wonder how bad were the other folks below us in both categories that they couldn't pass us during the vanilla schemes part of the season. I guess our scrubs were just superior?

[HHURRICANE]

Re: Aggressive change has Tyrod Taylor, key Bills seeing a fresh approach

Wally...like what's the deal with the "War and Peace" posts?