his career, going back to virginia tech, has had such an interesting arc. i'm not sure when he's caught a break. https://twitter.com/CjHolmes22/status/1314343406726983686

gets to virginia tech as a five-star recruit. shares the job with sean glennon as a freshman (tangent: if you want to see a game where it seems like the defense has 15 players, check out va tech-lsu from 2007).

plan was to redshirt him in '08, but tech lost to east carolina in their first game, and the line was too bad for glennon to do anything behind it.

sooooo welcome back, tyrod. that's...not really a good break for tyrod. you get to play because you're fast enough to save yourself

also of note: this is all with bryan stinespring as offensive coordinator. i understand this won't mean much to most of you, but if you know a va tech fan, see what happens when you say his name.

let's just say tyrod wasn't playing for chip kelly.

but by 2010, he was the acc offensive player of the year, over redshirt junior russell wilson. and i'll die talking about, even with that being the case, he was poorly utilized in college.

now, getting drafted by baltimore? one could argue a good break. not if you want to play, as flacco was nothing if not durable, but not a bad place to be.

got to buffalo and rex made him the starter. there was mystery then, but that decision seems pretty obvious with hindsight.

and tyrod made the pro bowl in 2015. played well that season. he's got limitations, obviously, but roman did a good job putting tyrod in position to do things he did well. made the run game better. got a lil dough after that season, as i recall.

i'm not sure any of those things are good breaks, but they ain't bad news. guess 2017 is when it all just got...weird. bills were strangely insistent on getting him out of his job. and in a season, as i recall, we expected them to flat out stink...but they made the playoffs.

but made the peter man the starter in the middle of the season. dude has the worst half of football i've ever heard of, and they had the nerve to look at tyrod and ask him to play.

we really don't talk enough about how absurd the second part is. nah, let him throw 10 picks.

really...how in the world did anyone ever sell that decision when taylor, no matter how low you think his ceiling is, was competent if nothing else? it was stupid before it was done, and it somehow managed to look even dumber. and it only took like two minutes.

anyway, tyrod goes to cleveland. doesn't play particularly well, but never looks quite healthy. then, playing banged up, gets concussed. mayfield comes in and plays well. the game is on national television. it's the browns' first win in *ages*.

only one way that could go.

but as messed up as the peter man thing was. as ultimately inevitable as it was in cleveland...losing your job cuz the doctor punctured your lung cuz you were trying to play through cracked ribs and needed a shot...the game don't love nobody. but especially not tyrod taylor.

look here: every other way you can make $54 million is better than playing football. https://twitter.com/TheBackPage/status/1314350676781096965

lol you think quarterbacks aren't getting the sh t knocked out of them? https://twitter.com/MixMethodsMaven/status/1314354966837039106

how many people have two ways to make $54 million? cmon man. that's $54 million, and the trade is a lifetime of pain. hosting sports tv shows is a better bargain. https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1314356946275897345