Buffalo's preseason opener Friday night against Carolina offered some efficient play from all three quarterbacks in head coach Rex Ryan's opinion. But hours before he would be reviewing the game footage Ryan already had his starting signal caller lined up for the team's next preseason contest in Cleveland Thursday.
"Tyrod will get the first reps he's going to start," said Ryan in his postgame press conference Friday night. "He's going to get a lot of the first reps so we'll do it business as usual, but he'll be getting the first shot at it, so he'll probably be getting a few more reps."
Naturally Taylor, who passed for 49 yards and rushed for 47 in the game Friday and led a pair of scoring drives, was buoyed by the prospect of starting next week against the Browns.
"(I'm) excited," he said. "Looking forward to going out there and playing against them. I know we have them coming in next week for a couple of practices. I'm looking forward to that."
Taylor's full game was on display Friday as he had three rushes for 35 yards on the team's first scoring drive. He was also 5-8 passing with his incompletions coming on higher degree of difficulty deep fade routes.
But Taylor's performance didn't sound like it had any impact on getting the starting nod for next Thursday. He felt all three quarterbacks were efficient against Carolina and that the decision hasn't been made any easier.
As Ryan views it Taylor is simply the next guy up in the rotation after EJ Manuel got the start in the blue-white scrimmage and Matt Cassel got to start in Friday night's preseason opener. His quarterbacks see it the same way.
"I would say it's a rotation," said Manuel, who went 4-8 passing with a 51-yard touchdown Friday. "I started the scrimmage. Cassel went second. Now Cassel started this one and I went third, Tyrod went second and so on. We'll see how it goes, but I'm not really focused on rotation. I'm just focused on knowing once I get in the game, it doesn't matter whether you go first or last you've just got to go out there and play well."
Ryan didn't shed any light on who would come into the game after Taylor next Thursday and who would be third, but the other two quarterbacks refuse to worry about something they can't control.
"It doesn't bug me one way or the other," said Cassel, who completed seven of his eight pass attempts against Carolina. "I'll go out and when they tell me to go in I'll go play. You can't let that stuff impact you or get you upset. You just go out and every opportunity you get is an opportunity you've got to make the most of."
"I can't focus on whether I'm going in first, going in second or going in third," said Manuel. "I can't focus on the game differently. I have to go in with the same type of focus and take advantage of my opportunity. I'm going to go out there and do my best."
For Taylor this is the most consideration he's ever had to be a starting quarterback in his NFL career, so he's determined to make good on it.
"Continue to keep doing the things that I'm doing," he said. "Staying more consistent. Continue to keep practicing well and let everything else take care of itself. I'm just glad for the opportunity to start next week."
