Fred Taylor to Visit Bills, Potential Marshawn Lynch Implications

The Jaguars released running back Fred Taylor last week, in part because, as a 11-year veteran, he's already playing on borrowed time, but also to free up salary-cap space to extend Maurice Jones-Drew's contract.

It was a mildly surprising move but from a business perspective, also completely understandable. Unlike most 33-year-old running backs, Taylor looks to have plenty left in the tank. Where Shaun Alexander and, to a lesser degree, Edgerrin James, have lost a step, Taylor stills seems perfectly capable of juking or steamrolling a defender as needed. Which explains why the Patriots and Bills are interested in his services.

Brinson mentioned this last week: the Bills' attraction may have just as much to do with the 22-year-old Marshawn Lynch as it does with Taylor. And today, the Buffalo News' Mark Gaughan adds this:

... [T]he move [to bring in Taylor] could have bigger implications, too. The Bills have a quality backup in Fred Jackson. It may be hard to convince Taylor to join Buffalo if he thinks he's going to be the third wheel in the Bills' backfield. If the Bills were to convince Taylor to sign, it could trigger an attempt to trade Lynch.

Taylor sounds like he still wants to start and there's no way that happens in a three-back rotation, particularly when one of the backs was the Bills' first-round pick in 2007. But if the plan is to ship Lynch out of town, then it's a much more attractive option.

There are all sorts of things to work out. For starters, this is solely speculative at this point. There's also the issue of a) who might want Lynch and the baggage that comes with him, and b) what the Bills will expect in return. Oh, and Buffalo needs to sign Taylor.