Mango

This is bonkers. His actions? His words? His intent? He is literally saying somebody else is responsible for all of this, when all we are debating here is the things he literally said and did. It might be one thing if he went the Michael Vick route. Opened up a facility to rehabilitate those with TBI's or mental illness. If he spent a bunch of time working within communities dominated by POC. But he doesn't. He is whining that somebody else is responsible for the world finding out about the stuff he did. And frankly, shame on Eric Wood for cosigning it. The only thing I find more frustrating in all of this than Incognito passing on the blame is other people doing the same. I just can't wrap my head around reading the 144 pages of the Wells report and all his arrests and going "Oh yeah that Richie Incognito, real good dude without any malice, Jonathan Martin ruined that mans reputation". It just feels so gaslighting.

Cut the guy some slack, it's not like he's Einst.....never mind. As you were.

Antonio Brown is mentally ill and is a bad person. Kanye West is mentally ill and is a bad person. Richie Incognito who calls black people the n-word, Asian people the c-word, throws weights at people, threatens to shoot people. This feels like splitting hairs. On Incognitos best day he is a dangerous humanbeing. And for me, if you are dangerous you cannot be good. The fact that after all the evidence was released about Incognito,(the text messages, the voicemails, the first hand accounts)that after 12 years he (and Eric Wood) thinks that somebody else ruined his reputation doesn't give me any faith that he (Incognito) is some sort of reformed individual. It is actually an insane premise. Incognito ruined Incognito. The fact that he not only said all those terrible things, but also thinks somebody else is to blame for all the terrible things he said, means he stinks as a human.

No we don’t have to just “acknowledge” that some people talk that way. lol. The guys calls people Chinamen, *****, and a stinky Pakistani. All mentally ill people aren’t bad or dangerous people. But Richie Incognito is. I didn’t realize that there was anybody out there debating this. Ha.

Imagine texting a somebody “wassup you half n-word piece of shirt” and writing it off as “over the top locker room talk”. That wasn’t a lie. It’s a message he sent, along with a whole bunch of other racial slurs to employees in the building. I agree with your first paragraph. But in regards to your second, hard pass. Incognito is a bad human. Full stop. There’s a bunch of bad humans in NFL locker rooms that teammates support. But the general public shouldn’t. Richie stinks. Should Incognito have been suspended for what showed up in the Wells report?

Imagine thinking that somebody else could be responsible for ruining your "brothers" reputation when your brother sends text messages like this. I don't doubt that Martins family lead the charge on this in order to save their kid life changing money. But lets nor pretend that the whole entire thing was made up, that Incognito wasn't using racial slurs towards others in the building, and that he was some good dude before Jonathan Martin came along. Incognito is a bad human with overly scrambled eggs.

Aye, they were just talking about this on NFL radio.

Oh no, time for Slick Rick to hunker down!

Franchise tag for an RB is $12M right now. It has gone up, but a couple of big contracts have skewed that recently. Outside of Cook himself, I am not sure who would reset the market in a major way to jump that number to 15, 16, or 17M. I have zero issue with Cook playing out his contract and one year with a tag. That is very much in the Bills favor. (Which is why RB's have gotten so aggressive about extensions)

This is a good breakdown of my thought. I think Cooks actual fair value (compared to other backs in the league) is about $8-$10M. But I understand that these players like to reset the market every year. So my stretch number is $12M. I would go to $15M on a player I thought whose base value was $12M. But going to $15M on a players whose base value I think could be under $10M is a stretch. Especially when you are paying the QB. That said, I do agree @Kirby Jackson in principal. I am like 87% of the way there. But I am having trouble getting myself across the finish line. I think paying him $15M AAV long term is a move that either gets this roster across the finish line, or becomes a bullet point in cost that holds other position groups back. Paralysis by analysis.

Bills: "Would you like $11.5M per year?" Cook: "$20 mil or bust" Bills: "Enjoy Cleveland" Don't get me wrong. I prefer Cook stays. But if he is in some hold out stage for $15M+, it would be tough not use him in a trade for somebody like Myles Garret. Would you rather make $30M, play with Josh Allen, and maybe win a SB? Or would you rather make $39M and play for the Cleveland Browns.

The cap is real. The bill always comes do. There is no way around it. New Orleans and Cincinnati are two very good examples of how not to manage your cap situation. The key is knowing how many chips you should push in and when to push them. To use Philly as an example, they have had an AWESOME run, and their cap management will be totally worth it, but once Hurts' contract starts to kick in, I don't think he is a good enough passer to make up for the (lack of) weapons they'll have. I know I know, SB MVP.

That game was nowhere near a worse QB performance. Mahomes turned the ball over 3 times. Brady lost by 3 and was in the game for all 4 quarters and held the lead twice. Not scoring enough points is always better than giving away points.

I am no longer in Buffalo, I am in no-mans-land in the capital region. I have heard a lot of chatter that this game changed a lot of the narrative around Mahomes being the heir apparent to Brady. But now that that is out there, I am sure that Mahomes will have a phenomenal 2025.

I heard a crazy stat that Mahomes is 0-3 in the playoffs when Tom Brady is in the building. For that reason alone I am all for the league letting Brady to continue to work as a broadcaster, I hope Fox wins the bid for the next 10 Super Bowls, and they start picking up the AFCCG.

I think Cooks value is/was in the $8-10M range. But Barkley/Henry sort of reset the RB market and I think that will push his value to about $12M. $15M seems steep for a player I am already stretching to $12M for.

I can't believe I am going to defend the New England era, but until Mahomes wins more rings, TB never had a SB as bad Mahomes did on Sunday, and performances like these from Kelce are exactly why Gronk is the best TE by quite some margin over Kelce.

Very curious of the crossover between the “oh no, boob commercial crowd” and the “I can’t believe we don’t have cheerleaders anymore” crowd.

Would that call have reversed the strip sack? It came after Mahomes lost the ball by a different player than the guy who stripped the ball. Feels like that might have just pushed the 15 yards back.

I agree. But if I am Pittsburgh I’m letting this roster get one more shot before I gut it for 2026 draft capital so that they can move up and get a QB. If I’m Pittsburgh I’d trade TJ Watt for a million picks to get a QB.

Wins and losses are team stats, not QB stats. So maybe shove that argument right back into your pie hole! Imagine seeing a detailed 20+ point list of a careers worth NFL records and being so immature to just respond with “bUt ThE wInS aNd LoSsEs”.

I think TH at $30M is still way better value than $20M for Kupp.

I know the math checks out as $20M < $29M but $29M feels cheaper because $20M for Cooper Kupp isn’t great value. A bit of a typo from me above, I don’t want multiple dead years of decent money to make Kupp work. I don’t think a real contender traded for him.

I keep thinking that for $20M the Bills can grab Tee Higgins and keep their 4th. In my head I would have to get Kupp down to the $5-7M range. I don’t love the cost of paying LAR to do that, and I “think” I hate what that would do to the cap when the bill comes due at the end of his run. If there’s a world where we can grab him without 3 dead years of $15M and a 5th, I’d take a flyer. Breaking this down in real time in my head, I think there’s a world where Kupp could be cut and he picks his next spot. He saves them $7M by just releasing him. Otherwise I don’t think a contender is willing to take the cap number/give the Rams a high pick to keep some money. .