Player Profile: Tyrod Taylor

As I'm getting prepared for 2018's fantasy football season, I've begun deep-diving into stats and projections. When the Cleveland Browns went on their stampede during free agency, one of the pieces they acquired intrigued me. Tyrod Taylor. 

Player Profile: Tyrod Taylor 

I've always found Tyrod Taylor to be that sneaky fantasy option that is great for streaming through bye-weeks or utilized in two-QB/Superflex leagues. To see him move to a new system that was adding pieces at a near-historic rate made me want to take a closer look at his stats, and see what type of fantasy projection I could establish. The results surprised me, and the draft only made it worse. Prepare yourselves, Tyrod Taylor truthers, this won't be easy. 

Taylor's career best in passing yards was in 2015 when he threw for 3,035 yards on 380 attempts. He finished with 20 touchdowns, also a career best. Sammy Watkins was responsible for 95 of those targets, and Charles Clay accounted for 77 of them. 

For fantasy purposes, Tyrod Taylor has maintained a safe-floor due to his legs. In 2017 he finished as the 16th ranked quarterback. He’s the only quarterback in the top 20 that threw for less than 3,000 yards. He threw for 14 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions and rushed for four more scores.

While not flashy, Taylor typically manages to be a fantasy relevant option each year. This may be the year that changes.

While he joins a Browns roster that is deep with weapons, it may be too deep to foster multiple fantasy relevant players. His receiver core is solid with Jarvis Landy, Josh Gordon, and Corey Coleman. He’s also always targeted his tight end heavily and has an extremely athletic option in David Njoku. If there weren’t enough options at receiver, we can’t forget to mention scat-back Duke Johnson as someone who garners a share of targets as well. It’s also worth mentioning that the Browns dropped a number-one pick on Baker Mayfield who will be waiting in the wings for his chance under-center. Head coach, Hue Jackson has no problem trotting a rookie out there to see how they fare or pulling a quarterback who’s struggling.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm actually a Tyrod Taylor fan. He has value with the way he can open an offense up, especially for the run game. If defenses stack the box, he can beat them deep, and he has two receivers who are capable of doing just that. If the defense brings a heavy rush, he can scramble or execute a designed run. While I like what Taylor brings to the fantasy-table, he's not going to throw for 4,000 yards even if he starts all 16 games. His lower-volume pass approach, in what looks to be shaping up as a run-heavy scheme will make it difficult to support multiple fantasy viable options. So while I'm not really down on Taylor, I'm skeptical of the situation and of how long he remains the starter the Cleveland.

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