It's been a while since we have seen a quarterback come out of obscurity to immediate success. Kurt Warner late last century comes to mind. After that, maybe Colin Kaepernick's early success with San Francisco could be used as a guise.
As it relates to Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, the hope in Western New York has to be that he will trend the way of Warner, not Kaepernick, moving forward.
For now, Taylor has proven himself to be a fantasy relevant quarterback after just three weeks as the Bills starting quarterback. This comes after four years of Taylor acting as the backup quarterback to Joe Flacco in Baltimore.
Fresh off a three-interception performance against the New England Patriots last week, Taylor responded by completing 21-of-29 passes for 277 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions in Buffalo's 41-14 dismantling of the Miami Dolphins. That performance was good enough for Taylor to rank third behind Andy Dalton and Cam Newton in fantasy points from the quarterback position on Sunday.
Overall this season, Taylor finds himself as the fourth-best fantasy quarterback through Week 3 (Monday Night Football pending). He's tallied 810 yards with eight total touchdowns and three interceptions while completing well over 70 percent of his passes. Those are some elite fantasy numbers right there.
The interesting dynamic here is that Taylor hasn't really received much production from two of his most-talented offensive players, LeSean McCoy and Sammy Watkins, who have combined for 328 total yards in three games. Once they get it going, the surprising performance we have seen from Taylor will take another step. That much is clear.
What we can say for a certainty right now, Taylor is an obvious DFS play moving forward. And if you have the opportunity to acquire him on the relative cheap in standard leagues, it's something you are going to have to think about.
The level of play we have seen from this quarterback through three weeks is something we haven't seen in Buffalo since the Jim Kelly era. Buy in now, or face the real possibility of being left behind. That's our recommendation — one that's nowhere near the overreaction that it seems.