Roth: The case for Tyrod Taylor: Not why, but why not?

Shortly after joining the Buffalo Bills as a free agent in March, quarterback Tyrod Taylor walked into position coach David Lee's office in Orchard Park.

For Taylor, it was like walking into a classroom on the first day of school and getting a pop quiz.

"We started going through the playbook and we had a lot of formations and we got to some of the difficult formations, so I was going through them and I said, 'Hey now, I'm gonna test you,' '' Lee recalled. "Bam, he got about 12 of them perfect. I looked at him and said 'Do you have a photographic memory?' And he said, 'I do, coach.' ''

More: Columns by Leo Roth

Unfortunately for Taylor, who beat out Matt Cassel and EJ Manuel for the Bills starting job and will make his debut Sunday at home against Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck, NFL fans in western New York have photographic memories, too.

They remember vividly the dozen quarterbacks who have started games for the Bills since 2000.

How the likes of Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie and Drew Bledsoe and J.P. Losman and Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick and EJ Manuel and Kyle Orton (catch your breath here) could not sustain stretches of strong play.

How errant throws, interceptions and three-and-outs piled up like spent beer cups, keeping the Bills jogging in place. How age and exposed limitations doomed some. How impetuous coaches fighting for their own survival doomed others.

And now it's Tyrod Taylor's turn.

Given Taylor's inexperience (no career starts, 35 passes total in four seasons as a backup in Baltimore), all predictions saying he will be the quarterback to steer Buffalo into the playoffs for the first time in 15 seasons are based purely on 50 percent potential and 50 percent hope.

But most people can predict this with 100 percent certainty: The 26-year-old whiz kid from Hampton, Virginia., by way of Virginia Tech, where he was a legend, will be the most entertaining quarterback in a Bills uniform since Flutie was making believers out of doubters in 1998 and '99.

For fans who like a quarterback than can pass and run, who can keep defenders grasping at a ghost as he buys time in the pocket or takes off down field, fasten — as the late, great Van Miller said — your seat belts.

Yes, the safer play was Cassel, he of 71 career starts, but whose game makes a white wall look interesting.

Yes, Manuel, a former first-round pick, had a splendid preseason, too, showing signs that his talent could be tapped now that he's under the tutelage of Lee and head coach Rex Ryan.

But Taylor is the most multi-faceted (a living Madden game for coordinator Greg Roman), the greatest unknown for opponents to prepare for (Colts coach Chuck Pagano called him "a pain in the rear") and a player whose style can no longer be dismissed as a novelty that can't work in the NFL (see Colin Kaepernick, see Russell Wilson, see Cam Newton).

"He's a guy who has improved his accuracy, his knowledge, his wisdom, his decision-making,'' Lee said. "And he gives us that added dimension on offense, the 12th man (a running QB). I thought Tyrod moved the chains every time he was in there in the preseason and he showed us he can throw from the pocket. We've chosen him to start. It's his job, his team, he doesn't have to look over his shoulder at anybody. He has our full support."

You add it all up and Taylor gives this Bills team, built to run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense, the most upside to be not just good, but great. And frankly, after not seeing the postseason since the Clinton Administration, what do they have to lose?

OK then, unleash the Terror of Tyrod.

At Virginia Tech, he was a player Hokies fans absolutely loved and coach Frank Beamer wanted to adopt after he defeated Florida State and Bobby Bowden as a freshman. In Taylor's tenure, Virginia Tech won three ACC titles, including 2010 when Taylor engineered 11 wins in a row after an 0-2 start. He won ACC Player of the Year honors.

For his career, he rolled up nearly 9,000 yards in offense, 67 touchdowns and a 34-7 record. Still, NFL scouts projected the 6-1, 215-pound Taylor as a wide receiver, not a quarterback. Every team but the Ravens, who drafted him in the sixth round.

The bad part for Taylor was joining a team with an established quarterback who misses games as often as a defensive tackle misses meals: Joe Flacco has started all 112 games of his career.

The good part for Taylor was learning under such a consummate pro, winning a Super Bowl in 2012, and being around a host of respected coordinators in Cam Cameron, Jim Caldwell and Gary Kubiak.

What the Bills obtained when they signed Taylor last March was one very prepared— albeit green — NFL quarterback who actually had an apprenticeship like the old days when the leashes weren't so short.

"Obviously he's a guy that lacks starting experience but he has been in this league for four years so he's ready for this,'' Ryan said. "Again, do I expect him to be a little nervous? Absolutely.''

And that's absolutely OK.

Taylor has dreamed of this moment, worked hard for this moment, gambled for this moment — he could've joined Kubiak in Denver and backed up Peyton Manning but instead chose to take Buffalo's offer of an open competition to start in 2015.

Why not him? Why not now? And why can't the Bills finally get lucky at football's most critical spot?

"I haven't really had the chance to sit back and just think about how everything's gonna play out,'' Taylor said. "I'm just more focused on going out there and executing, doing the things I've been coached to do and just go out there and be myself.''

Taylor isn't demonstrative; he prefers to "lead by action.'' Right now, his career stat line reads like one bad game: 19 of 35 passing, 199 yards, two interceptions, five sacks, a 47.2 rating. Most of those numbers came in a 23-17 season-ending mop up loss at Cincinnati in 2012.

But this is a new day. A fresh day.

"I definitely think I've grown as a football player, I've grown as a quarterback, I know more now than I knew four years ago, of course,'' Taylor said. "Some people say the best way to go out there and learn is on the field, but in my case I didn't have the opportunity to do that. So I had to learn a different way and I think I've learned a lot from the game-watching.''

Now comes the doing. Taylor's last start was against Luck in the Jan. 3, 2011, Orange Bowl, where Virginia Tech lost to Stanford 40-12. Roman was a Stanford assistant. Isn't serendipity grand?

"It's funny looking back on it four, five years later,'' Taylor said. "Of course we wanted to win that game, but that's behind us. It's about the Bills vs. the Colts now.''

It's about ending a 15-year playoff drought. Tyrod Taylor, you're up.