If you know what’s going on with the Buffalo Bills right now, you might want to let them know. The team fired head coach Rex Ryan and benched quarterback Tyrod Taylor on the same day earlier this week. They then decided it made sense to let general manager Doug Whaley oversee the search for a new head coach.
This came around the same time that interim head coach Anthony Lynn, the favorite to land the full-time gig, indicated that he did not have input in the decision to bench Taylor (more on that here).
If that isn’t enough, it now appears that the Bills don’t know exactly what is going on in their own injury report. On Wednesday, Lynn indicated that Taylor was suffering through a groin injury. He practiced in full.
Now, one day later, Taylor was absent from practice with what is now being described as a hamstring injury.
The Buffalo News reports Tyrod Taylor's absence from practice Thursday will be "attributed to a hamstring… https://t.co/j8JWm5BS6P
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) December 29, 2016
A hamstring injury Lynn himself indicated Taylor did not have the day before. A day that saw Taylor practice in full without any issues.
Asked yesterday if Taylor had hamstring injury, A. Lynn said, "No. I said if he pulled his hamstring, it would just be [the] next man up." https://t.co/ShEkFzFXWO
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) December 29, 2016
Okay, what exactly is going on here?
The decision to bench Taylor after he put up a 300-plus yard, three-touchdown performance against the Miami Dolphins was met with a lot of criticism. It, however, is being seen as a business decision. Taylor is owed over $30 million dollars, all of which becomes guaranteed in March.
He’s been replaced by former first-round bust EJ Manuel under center. This is the very same quarterback that represents Whaley’s worst draft pick in what has been a questionable tenure as the Bills’ general manager.
If Buffalo is going to somehow attempt to create a backstory that tells us a false story of why Taylor isn’t playing Sunday, it might actually want to get the story straight.
Then again, who are we to say the Bills’ brass actually knows what’s going on here.