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That's fair and I see your point. Personally I'm just not a big fan of paying second contracts to running backs. (Unless you're elite like CMC, Barkley or Henry)

I'm not a big void year guy either. But it is a tool that can be used, and Beane has used it before on even greater risk players (an injured Hyde at the end of his career, for example). But like we've said, even just 1 year changes the numbers significantly. And lets us pay him his desired "15 mil year", while the average and cap hit is more like $11M.

I think you have the mirage part backwards. the extension doesn’t factor in this season because they are already under contract. You aren’t getting an extra year, they are already here. There’s a reason this isn’t done by anybody, including agents and that’s a good thing. Do you want Cook’s agent to say, “well, technically a 3 for $45M is really like 4 for $50M so we want an extension at 3 years for $55M?”

I'm not entirely sure if you can - rookie deals are weird, especially non 1st round picks. I know he is in year 4, so he is eligible to negotiate an extension - but I don't know how much they can do to the current deal without an extension.

Here's your answer from the lips of Dawson Knox... "The dude's been playing on a torn PCL in one leg and then his other knee he doesn't even know what's wrong with it 'cause he hasn't had it scanned yet, but it's got so much fluid in it. Like, it's insane what he has played through... the selfless nature it takes to be able to put your body on the line for your team even when you got a torn PCL in one knee and the other knee don't even know what's wrong with it but it's messed up too..."

I used to be in the “RB are a dime a dozen” camp … but every time I think bank to last season, I get nervous about the idea of not having Cook. That 4th down TD he had against KC was pretty eye opening. Very, very, very few offensive players in the NFL score there. The defender had him dead to rights. I still have a hard time with the idea of paying a RB $15M, but I also recognize that Cook is special. I hope they find a middle ground. And I hope he gets off social media.

The solution is really is really easy to avoid any kind of holdout and I'd love for somebody to tell me if you can add incentives to a rookie contract on the final year of a deal. If he can get up to maybe $3m in incentives you'd still get maximum effort from him, keep him from being a distraction, and not have to commit long term.

If you structure it like philly you can add another void year every year he plays here. so it starts as a 4yr deal with 1 void year. Then each year the option bonus triggers you spread the cap hit over 4 years again. You end up with a dead money hit the year he leaves, but it keeps the cap hits low while they're here. I'm not sure i love that model for a back though, as they don't play usually play well into their 30s so you're almost guaranteed to see a big dead money number vs. say a lineman who you can extend again to keep the void money as bonus and not load as much of it into a single season.

Should be able to keep them all together. Cook is looking to make about as much as we just paid Shakir. We do not have a top WR who will command $20-30M. Knox will be coming off the books soon too. So we have Josh as the big money. Re-sign most of the OL (I think Edwards may walk either way), and keep our valued skill-position difference makers in the $12-15M range. All doable. Especially with streaming money hitting the cap increase every year.

Well, we’re about to find out what the rest of the league feels about him

You actually believe this is a “comprehensive deal?”

Yes- he had 31 catches while leading the WR unit in snaps- he was in there to block on more snaps than he was to catch passes.

Good.

Gabe & Josh obviously weren't a perfect connection..... but most of Allen's huge downfield plays were to Gabe Davis Steelers game & KC game immediately come to mind Gabe is still only 26 While the success % is not very good..... he consistently produced TD's and is a legit vertical option

From my view it would be difficult to say for sure that he wouldn't still be in the conversation to be our #2. Between Palmer, Samuel, and Coleman, none have done anything from a production stand point thus far to suggest they're significant upgrades over Gabe. Now do I actually think one or all of them could be better? Probably. Also possible they're very similar, but it's all nuance to arrive at those conclusions. Gabe had almost 1600 yards and 14 TD's in two seasons here. Is Palmer going to get 800 and 7 this year? If so, that's a really good year. Same with Coleman. Same with Samuel. We spread it out more now, those guys played for different teams, different QB's. Again, you have to get in the nuance to say he's a #4 or #5 now. I don't think he is because he's similar and likely better than Hollins and Hollins played a lot last year. Along with our leadership seemingly appreciate him way more than or fan base did. Either way, it's a debatable topic from my view, just as far as what he would be with todays WR group.

You're going to love my posts that followed the one you quoted. I said pretty much the same thing wrt averaging in the last rookie year. And even tacking on 1 void year to bring it to about $11M/yr even with the "$15M average" on the new deal. The best part is, Beane knows all this better than even we do.

Spluttering ninny should be your tag line.

These two are really the only points that need to be made. Most teams that give out premium second contracts to RB regret it within a couple of years. Maybe 15 to 20% or so don't. RB's usually start to decline after age 26 regardless of the wear and tear on their body.

How is this “hysterical?” Please explain.

I don't think a holdout is going to occur while he's on his rookie deal. If he were tagged maybe, but he really hasn't earned very much money yet. His salary went up considerably this year, but none of it is guaranteed and he won't get it until they start playing the games. On a holdout on a rookie deal we can reduce or dismiss his fines if he ends up showing up, or getting a new deal.

Do you ever get tired of being hysterical?

Cook is scheduled to make $5m this year because of the 4th year rookie performance bonus. Just like the Bernard and Shakir contracts, any extension signed will be partially a mirage because it doesn't factor in this coming season. If we sign Cook to a 3 year $45m extension like he wants, it will actually be a 4 year $50m contract. That's $12.5m AAV. He's worth that and I actually think the fact we did nothing to the RB room indicates we're heading towards an extension. And as Greg Tompsett always likes to point out, there will be an out midway through the deal if we want to move on.

A complete utter nothing “deal” that will continue to harm the American consumer.

You could try reading the article I linked instead of spluttering like a ninny