Taylor is the Bills’ No. 1 ... for now

IINDIANAPOLIS — Take this to the bank: Tyrod Taylor is the Buffalo Bills’ starting quarterback. Today.

But tomorrow? Or after March 16, when the NFL club reportedly owes him a $6-million US roster bonus? You might have to head back to the bank.

“Tyrod’s on our roster right now, and that’s the plan,” Bills GM Brandon Beane said Wednesday at his NFL Scouting Combine news conference. “We’re just taking it day by day, and like every position we’re trying to get better everywhere. We’re looking at every position, including quarterback.

“But Tyrod did a lot of good things for us. So I’m not really worried about the bonus. I see him on our roster right now, and unless something changes he’ll be here through that (roster-bonus date).”

An hour earlier, Bills head coach Sean McDermott told reporters that the eighth-year pro “was instrumental in getting us into the playoffs, breaking what was a 17-year drought. You’ve heard me say it before: His work ethic and his intangibles are unmatched, and his leadership.”

Right. But as any discerning viewer of NFL games can attest, whenever the Bills have most needed Taylor to snatch a late victory from defeat with his passing, or succeed as a passer when the Buffalo run game has stalled, he has mostly failed.

Often epically. Such as when he threw for just nine yards in the second half of a one-sided home-field loss to the New Orleans Saints last November.

That’s why both McDermott and Beane have, and will continue, to qualify all their praise of Taylor, no matter highly steeped, with words such as these from the head coach about Taylor and the team’s future at quarterback: “We’re still going through that process. We’re in a good position, with some options out there. So that’ll work itself out.”

And should another team make a good enough offer for Taylor? Well, you shouldn’t have to guess what the Bills would do. They’d listen. And maybe pull the trigger.