LA Chargers: Why Tyrod Taylor is the worst quarterback in the AFC West

Tyrod Taylor’s status in the league

I would put Lock in the same category as Carr as he is going to be right around the league median in 2020. Somewhere between the 14th and 18th best quarterback in the NFL in 2020. As far as Tyrod Taylor is concerned, I have him being the 20th-23rd best quarterback in the league in 2020.

Again, this is not to say that he is going to be bad for the Chargers. I think the quarterback position is more talented than it has ever been (even if we get some interesting quarterbacks starting at times) and the 20th-best quarterback in the league is someone you can win games with.

But when you look at the numbers, even at his best, Taylor is right around the bottom third of starting quarterbacks.

From 2015-2017, which was quite a long time ago in NFL years and Taylor’s best stretch, he ranked 20th in passing yards, 20th in passing touchdowns and 19th in completion percentage.

He can use his legs, which does give him another tool in his arsenal, but he is also going to be playing behind the worst offensive line of his career (minus the three Cleveland starts) and it is hard to be a scrambling quarterback, especially at 31 years old, behind a bad O-line.

And simply being a rushing quarterback does not shoot you up the quarterback rankings. While Taylor was second in rushing yards in that timeframe, Blake Bortles was fourth. Mitch Trubisky is fourth over the last two years.

My favorite comparison to make is between Tyrod Taylor and Marcus Mariota. Most Charger fans would probably say Mariota is not that great, but for some reason, Tyrod is despite them being very similar.

Here are the numbers when we compare Taylor’s three best seasons (2015-2017) with Mariota’s (2016-2018):

• Taylor: 22-20-0, 62.6 completion percentage, 8,857 passing yards, 7.2 yards per attempt, 51 touchdowns, 92.5 quarterback rating, 1,575 rushing yards, 5.6 rushing yards per attempt, 14 rushing touchdowns
• Mariota: 24-19-0, 63.6 completion percentage, 9,186 passing yards, 7.4 yards per attempt, 50 touchdowns, 88.7 quarterback rating, 1,018 rushing yards, 5.5 rushing yards per attempt, nine rushing touchdowns

The biggest difference between Mariota and Taylor is that Taylor throws fewer interceptions, and to be fair, he throws far fewer. I broke this comparison down more in-depth here, where you can see how the two teams that the quarterbacks played for were actually very similar.

At the end of the day, I would take Derek Carr and Drew Lock over Tyrod Taylor and I do think they both would win more games as the quarterback of the Chargers. It is not a massive difference, but it is a difference nonetheless.