A main storyline of this Buffalo Bills playoff season is the question of whether Tyrod Taylor —

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Sorry, I needed to take a moment to consider what I just typed. It takes a while to sink in, I suppose.

Anyway, the question of whether Tyrod Taylor is the Bills’ quarterback of the future has been a hotly-debated topic for the past couple years. Depending on how the Bills fare against the Jaguars tomorrow, it could be the last time Taylor suits up in a Buffalo uniform.

He is an undoubtedly talented player, one who is capable of making some of the most extraordinary plays you’ll ever see.

He is also not a quarterback you can rely on to make an average team good, or a good team great, which is how I would define a franchise quarterback.

But where does he rank among the quarterbacks the Bills have trotted out over the course of the playoff drought? After all, there have been quite a few.

Since the 2000 season, seven different players have started at least 16 games at quarterback for the Bills: Ryan Fitzpatrick (53), Drew Bledsoe (48), Taylor (43), J.P. Losman (33), Trent Edwards (32), Rob Johnson (19), and EJ Manuel (17).

Here’s how I would rank the Buffalo quarterbacks of the drought era (the drought is dead; long live the drought):

7. EJ Manuel. Doug Whaley won’t agree with Manuel’s spot, but to me there’s nowhere else to put him. He just didn’t possess the necessary skills to play quarterback at an NFL level. He completed barely 58 percent of his passes with the Bills while tossing just 19 touchdowns in 28 games and averaging a paltry 125.1 yards per game through the air. He did have one heck of a hard count, though.

6. J.P. Losman. Manuel will go down as a bigger bust because he was taken six spots higher in the draft (16the and 22nd, respectively), but Losman remains one of the Bills’ biggest blunders at QB. He finished his career in Buffalo with more interceptions (34) than touchdown passes (33) and a thoroughly pedestrian 75.6 paser rating. Perhaps most damning of all was his putrid 10-23 record as a starter.

5. Drew Bledsoe. Another potentially controversial placement, but I think Bledsoe’s time in Buffalo has been overrated. His Pro Bowl 2002 season was one of the better campaigns by a Bills QB in recent memory, but he followed it up with two clunkers and quickly wore out his welcome. The Bills’ near-miss in 2004 was a result of a dominant defense more than any heroics from Bledsoe.

4. Trent Edwards. Known by many in Buffalo to this day as “Captain Checkdown”, Edwards actually had some good outings, especially during the team’s 5-1 start in 2008. But his carelessness with the football (27 interceptions to 25 touchdowns) and inability to push the ball down the field drew the ire of many fans. The concussion he suffered early in 2008 against the Cardinals had a major impact on his career trajectory.

3. Rob Johnson. Even I was surprised with where this fellow ended up. Few players in recent Bills history are looked back at less fondly than Johnson due in large part to the controversy between him and Doug Flutie. While Johnson’s 9-17 record as a starter in Buffalo certainly isn’t good, he also played for some really bad teams. But as a Bill, Johnson put up some decent numbers: a respectable 85.5 passer rating, 7.2 yards per attempt, and most surprisingly, 6.7 yards per carry, a full yard per carry better than Taylor’s (5.6).

2. Ryan Fitzpatrick. Unlike many of the names on this list, most Bills fans still have a lot of admiration for the guy they call Fitz. More than any quarterback the Bills have had in the last two decades, Fitzpatrick was willing to take risks. It led to some big numbers, including three straight seasons of 3,000-plus passing yards (practically a landmark milestone for a Bills quarterback). But so often it was his knack for throwing back-breaking interceptions that held Fitzpatrick back from being a reliable passer.

1. Tyrod Taylor. It might not be saying much, but Taylor is indeed the best quarterback the Bills have had during the drought and now at the end of it. Fans may (rightfully) bemoan his unwillingness to take chances and the fact that he holds onto the ball too long. But his uncanny ability to make something out of nothing is a skill that most fans take for granted. Taylor has also had to make due with a preposterously mediocre group of pass-catchers during his time in Buffalo.

If this is the end of the Tyrod Taylor era in Buffalo, how should fans evaluate his three seasons? Was he a unique playmaker who was never given the full support of the organization? Or was he a slightly better-than-average quarterback who wasn’t the man to take the team to the next level?

If you ask me, I would say more than one thing can be true.