Don't be surprised if Tyrod Taylor banks the $6 million bonus owed by the Bills

When well-connected Ian Rapoport went on NFL Network Thursday afternoon with a report that the Bills are not planning to cut Tyrod Taylor before he is due a $6 million bonus on March 16, I can tell you my eyebrows did not arch in surprise.

As the weeks have rolled by since the Bills were beaten by Jacksonville in the AFC wild-card round, trying to figure out what Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane are going to do at quarterback has been a daily exercise.

Are they going to drop a fully-loaded Brinks truck in Kirk Cousins’ bank account? Are they going to sign some other veteran free agent, someone like Sam Bradford, Case Keenum, Josh McCown, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Teddy Bridgewater, or the newly available A.J. McCarron? Would they try to acquire Alex Smith or Nick Foles in a trade? Or, are they going to put together a whopper of a draft pick package to trade up into the top five to draft Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen or Baker Mayfield? Lastly, should they just stick it out with Taylor, use their draft picks to fortify other positions, and take their swing at their franchise quarterback next year?

To me, only two scenarios make sense for the Bills.

If they can win the Cousins’ sweepstakes, good for them. He’s not worth the absurd money it will take, but he would certainly be an upgrade over Taylor and just about every other quarterback the Bills have had dating back to Drew Bledsoe’s one big season in 2002.

Or, they make the play for one of the top kids in the draft. And if that’s what they do, then Taylor is the best option as the bridge quarterback because believe it or not, his $18 million cap figure (after the bonus kicks in) isn’t out of line in this day and age of quarterback salaries for one with seven years in the league, three as a starter.

Sounds crazy, right? Another year of Tyrod? Well, sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side as someone once said.

Bradford has had two major knee surgeries and sat out almost all of 2017, so he’s a big risk and certainly can’t be considered a long-term option at age 30, and an old 30 at that. Bridgewater is intriguing, but he hasn’t played in two years because of a gruesome knee injury, plus, I think the Vikings would like to bring him and Keenum back.

If Keenum goes free, I wonder whether he was a one-year wonder playing in the perfect situation, and I have the same reservations about Foles if the Eagles put him on the trade market. Smith, of course, is already off the table with his trade from Kansas City to Washington. McCarron is somewhat interesting, but he hasn’t played a meaningful snap since 2015, so what is he? As for Fitzpatrick or McCown, come on, let’s not go there.

By paying Taylor his bonus, the Bills are at least protected until they figure out their course of action. If they don’t love any of the free agents, and they can’t swing a draft-day trade to move up, Taylor would be in the house. And as much as he sometimes drives all of us nuts, I’d rather have him than some of these other guys. For all his passing faults, he’s 23-20 as Buffalo’s starter and helped the Bills end their 17-year playoff drought.

And here’s the thing: Just because they pay him the bonus, they aren’t tied to him if something better comes along. In fact, by eating that $6 million on their own salary cap, it would be easier for the Bills to trade Taylor because when you subtract the bonus and the $2 million portion of his prorated signing bonus, the acquiring team would be on the hook for only $10 million. That’s a bargain for a starting-caliber NFL QB, and could bring a reasonably decent package back to Buffalo.

If the Bills could somehow trade Taylor before June 1, they would absorb a $7.6 million dead cap hit, but would gain $10.4 million on the 2018 cap. If they just outright cut him, the dead cap hit is $8.6 million and the cap savings is $9.4 million. So no, Rapoport’s report did not surprise me at all because I see the merit in not cutting ties to save $6 million.

Here are some other thoughts I had this week:

► The quarterback talk will only ramp up next week at the NFL scouting combine as the Bills – and the other 31 teams – take deep dives into the top prospects. And believe me, what happens on the field inside Lucas Oil Stadium counts next to nothing in the team evaluations of these players.

All the coaches, GMs and personnel men have seen the game and practice tape from the college football season, and they don’t care how a guy performs in the immortal three-cone drill or the high jump. For some reason, fans do, and I’ll never understand why. The biggest bonanza at the combine is the opportunity for the teams to meet players one-on-one – in blocks of 15 minutes – and getting the medical updates from impartial doctors. That’s the information that matters at the annual NFL meat market.

► Tuesday was the first day teams could apply franchise or transition tags on their 2018 free agents, and they can do so through March 6. I don’t think the Bills are going to use either designation, but if they do, I believe the only two players worthy of consideration are cornerback E.J. Gaines and linebacker Preston Brown.

Gaines played very well – when he was healthy – last year after coming to Buffalo in the Sammy Watkins trade. Brown led the NFL in tackles, and since joining the Bills as a third-round draft pick in 2014, he has never played less than 93 percent of the defensive snaps in a season, including 99 percent each of the last two years.

However, the tag costs — even though they would be for just one year — are exorbitant for two players who have never sniffed a Pro Bowl. To franchise Gaines would cost $14.8 million, while a transition would be $12.8 million. Brown would command $15.4 million on a franchise tag and $13.1 million on a transition. That’s just too much for either player.

► We know McDermott is a control freak, but for the life of me I don’t understand why there was a need to let go assistant equipment manager Randy “Woody” Ribbeck last week. In fact, it’s just wrong.

Woody worked 35 years for the Bills, and believe me, there wasn’t anyone on One Bills Drive who grinded harder at his job. This was a guy who never walked a day in his life, he ran, and he ran hard. He ran hard in 1983 when he started, and he ran hard in 2017 because no task was unimportant.

I get firing people who are directly involved with the on-field product such as coaches or trainers, but why put a loyal, behind-the-scenes worker on the unemployment line. What, did Woody not fix a player’s helmet fast enough, or was the laundry not as clean as McDermott liked? This one really puzzles me.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com