LA Chargers: Tyrod Taylor game grade for Week 1 vs. Cincinnati

The LA Chargers snuck out of Paul Brown Stadium with a 16-13 win on Sunday. Here is quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s grade for the game.

In what was a typical nail biter of a season opener for LA Chargers fans, quarterback Tyrod Taylor did just enough to spoil Joe Burrow’s NFL debut and get the win in Cincinnati.

Taylor’s final stat line was rather underwhelming, as he put together 16 completions on 30 attempts, for 208 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. On the ground, he had six rushing attempts for just seven yards.

For Taylor’s first game grade of the season, he earned himself a C. While LA Chargers fans may completely disagree and may already be calling for a quarterback change, the case is very simple.

Breaking down Tyrod Taylor’s C grade:

Tyrod Taylor did nothing to get the team the win, but on the other hand, he did nothing to completely throw this game away. He was nowhere near elite, maybe not even good. But, he was okay, and “okay” is exactly what I think when I think of receiving a C for a grade. Could’ve been a bit better, could’ve been a bit worse.

One negative on the day? Taylor could not make more than one (maybe two if we’d like to be generous) difficult, tight-window throws. His completions were almost all to wide-open receivers, and the only throw that is the slightest bit memorable is on his rollout and completion to Jalen Guyton on their touchdown scoring drive in the third quarter.

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Another glaring problem that Taylor had? He did not help himself in the slightest as his eyes were locked onto his primary target when he sat in the pocket. When he was forced out, you saw some more looking around because the play did not go as it was supposed to and he needed to find somewhere to get the ball. Taylor cannot continue to do that, especially as the schedule gets tougher.

Just a reminder, these were the Cincinnati Bengals today. While a win is a win, better defenses will have no trouble jumping the route and bringing Taylor’s interception total up quicker than we may have thought possible.

One positive of today? Tyrod Taylor’s mobility did help him to avoid sacks pretty well with an offensive line that is still looking to get healthy and create real chemistry together. If we were watching Philip Rivers (although we all love him) we all know he’d have been sacked three to four more times in this game. Not giving up those yards and taking those hits will be very important throughout the season.

Another positive to take out of Taylor’s play today is that as expected, he did not make any mistakes that would give the Bengals the ball. They did not get any extra possessions and put our defense out on the field over and over because of a poor throw by Taylor, or even a bad just a bad decision in general. One interception in this game could’ve very well put the team at 0-1 to start the season.

It is not time to throw Justin Herbert into the fire, and a final game grade of a C certainly seems appropriate for Taylor. Hopefully, he can build on this as the LA Chargers have their home opener next week versus the Kansas City Chiefs.