BarleyNY

Why is that?

Yep. And that’s concerning because there’s no need for a message like that to get sent through the media if it already got through privately.

He has given similar answers in the past. IMO it was smart and mature. Nothing wrong with reminding Cook who helped him get to where he is now and how much they like/love him as a person and player. Doing so publicly sends that message to the fans as well as him.

That’s the big question - what’s he got left? At the right price and paired with a draft pick in the first or second round I’d be on board. Draft pick, Bosa, Rousseau, Epenesa and Solomon is a solid DE group. That draft pick has to be of the twitchy, bendy, speed rusher type though.

5 sacks in 14 games last season. That makes him a cut candidate at his price. So it would make sense to wait and see what happens by 3/12 when he has a huge roster bonus due. He’ll either rework his contract because he wants to stay in LA or they’ll cut him loose. Do I want him here? He’s going into his age 30 season and has a concerning injury history so it would have to be on a heavily incentivized contract. Maybe he wants to chase a ring and we give him his best shot at that. That’s about the only way I see it working out. No way do I trade for him on his current contract.

Same as Bills. 0-4 except they spread it out over 8 seasons.

Did you actually read my post? And can you be more specific about what you’re disagreeing about? I never said he wouldn’t get a contract from the Bills or another team this season or next. (Though in previous posts I disagreed with some about his value.) I just pointed out that the timing of his public demands allows the Bills to cover their rear ends on RBs. You think that’s wrong?

It does. Simply put, every dollar paid to a player hits the cap. Jones is set to make $7.75M in cash this season. That hits the cap this season and next (due to the void years) if we keep him on that contract. Obviously he has some unaccounted for cap dollars that have yet to hit it too. Those would be spread out over this season and next if he stays on the team or just hit this season if he is released next month. (Also a post 6/1 designation would push out some of the hit if cut next month.)

The other issue is that keeping Jones will add $7.75M to what I refer to as “total cap burden”. (The total cap dollars in all years that keeping a player on the roster adds to the team’s annual caps.) IOW, cutting him next month doesn’t do our 2025 cap any favors, but it does eliminate his 2026 cap hit, which is substantial. The total difference in cap space is $7.75M to keep him this season. If he can’t play anymore, then cut him and manage the 2025 cap in other ways. Other players can be restructured or they can use a post 6/1 designation on him. That is much better than burning nearly $8M in space.

The Steelers denied inquiring about Lawrence. They would be stupid to admit it if they had, so the denial means nothing (except that they’re a reasonably competent FO). Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. No way to know either way. I’ll say this though, they SHOULD be looking into every decent QB who is potentially available.

@Beck Water One additional thought: Cook has already made a big mistake IMO. I do not know if his agent had a role in Cook going public when he did and with what he said, but the timing was not wise. We are still weeks away from free agency and have the draft after that. Any competent GM is going to cover his rear end - and that is going to severely damage Cook’s leverage. If James and his brother had waited until mid-May to do this, then the Bills might’ve been in a tougher spot. If Leist is smart, he’ll get something done quickly.

That he’s inexperienced, which increases the likelihood that he’ll make a mistake in one direction or the other. Maybe he feels like he has to make a name for himself and overplays his hand. Or he feels like he’s gotta get a deal done and buckles when Beane pushes back. Could be anything in between. Looking at Dalvin’s deal, it got done after year 3 of his rookie deal (same as James now). It got signed just before week 1 of the season. Five year extension on top of his existing year. The AAV of the 5 extension years ranked 5th in the league in 2020 at $12.6M. He only played 3 of the 6 seasons and got about $27M total for the 3 seasons. That’s about one season at the rookie rate plus two at the AAV rate. I guess we just have to wait and see if he tries to reset the market or is good with a market value deal. Good chance that it drags on for a bit based on Dalvin’s timeline too.

It’s worth noting that James Cook’s agent, Matt Leist, has only negotiated two NFL contracts. One was Dalvin Cooks’.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the draft and other extensions. What they do at RB in the draft will tell us a lot. Beane has typically done extensions like Cook’s in or around September. Lotta time between now and then.

I never said I was mad at Cook for asking for more than he’s worth. That’s not a problem unless he escalates it to a problem. I simply pointed out that he’s not worth what he’s asking for. His size and limitations as a RB limit his role and snap count. That limits his value.

Making Cook play out his deal and then hitting him with a tag next offseason is certainly a reasonable course of action if a deal on an extension isn’t reached. Extensions on rookie deals (and fifth year options) usually include the dollar amount and remaining year(s) of the current contract and add new years at current market value to that. Some current and future salary is then converted to a signing bonus to give the player some cash up front. So there is a lot of incentive for both sides to get a deal done. That should happen ad long as both parties are reasonable.

I wish I could disagree with you. That really does seem to be the big flaw in just about any plan.

Your low end of $11M is not much different than the $10.5M AAV I used in my example, but it is significantly different than the $15M for which you had been advocating. I’ll stress that the $10.5M AAV is on new years only in my example. I thought would be a fair compromise and realistic MV. Cash is what matters to players. Structure is largely about cap management. I have no problem giving Cook a nice signing bonus this offseason and taking his salary down to vet min this season and next. I would try to limit guarantees to the first two seasons, but a partial in year 3 would be on the table for a longer extension.

The reflected spotlight coming off of his son isn’t bright enough for him.

You can always find good rotational DTs in FA for a reasonable price. Finding a difference making DT there is another story. So unless you find a prospect that you think can be special, then it doesn’t really make sense to spend much draft capital on the position - especially since they often take years to develop. Hopefully Beane has learned from the Star debacle. He was an excellent DT in Carolina except for his last season there when he was poor. For some reason Beane paid him like that season never happened. He rewarded us by repeating that last poor season and then getting even worse. I was angry the day I saw the contract and I am angry about it now. I loved the Oliver pick. Heck, I advocated for it on this site. But he’s turned out to be much more Robin than Batman. He’s got talent and can make an impact on a game, but he just can’t be “the guy”. Rousseau is another Robin, but at least that was always my expectation. This DL needs one big difference making DE in the worst way. A Crosby, Garrett or Parsons would make an enormous difference to this team. I have no idea how they’re going to find one though. I expect another churn of solid FA DTs to round out the interior, but what they do at RDE is going to make or break this defense.

It’s going to be very difficult to find difference makers at multiple positions in one offseason. I agree that we really need that, but I see FA as more for finding adequate starters to fill roster holes. It’s not going to be an easy road this offseason, but the Bills put themselves in this position.

The current market is nowhere near what Cook is asking for. I outlined what I thought was fair market value for him earlier in this thread. Feel free to comment on that or be specific about what you think he’s worth. Conveniently you’ve left some important facts out of your comparison - the cash and cap space allocated to Cook in a new deal could be used elsewhere if the Bills went in another direction this offseason or next. Plus any pick they would receive from a trade partner or via the comp pick formula. Cheaper to do it now? Not if the price is $15M, it’s not. It’d be way cheaper to let him play out his $5.3M 2025 season and then franchise him for less than $15M in 2026 if you wanted to keep him for two seasons.

You have a lot wrong in your post. I’m going to focus on the most important points you got wrong. I never said that I was okay with the Bills “not spending like other teams”. For starters, they do spend as much or more than other teams. Up until this past season they’d been a top 6 spender for several years. But the Eagles (and Browns) found a way to spend more. I’d like them to be the third team to adopt that model. I’m not protecting a billionaire’s money. I’m advocating for spending wisely and maximizing the talent on this team because of, you know, that pesky salary cap. So why are you in favor of overpaying Cook? What about overpaying other players? If not, why not them when Cook gets more than his value? Seems a great recipe to stay slide back from where we are now. Cook is not a special player. He’s limited as an overall back, though I think his vision is elite and he is an excellent runner. Still, his pass pro sucks, he is only a fair receiver and his snaps are limited to <50% because of his limitations in the passing game and durability due to his size. Why would you make a player like that the second highest paid at his position?

Read that the Haslams are having issues with their Brook Park dome plan. Seems like the issuance of local bonds as part of the financing isn’t feasible. Projections look to be based on a very unrealistic number of 50 annual sold out events over the next 30 years. As such, issuing them would be illegal under Ohio law. So it looks like the Haslams will have to come up with those funds or reconsider staying at the lakefront.

Beane’s chronic habit of leaving a hole at one position to be filled with their first round pick (or pick 33) in the draft has been very harmful to this roster. It’s allowed us to get jumped for players like KC did for McDuffie, required trade ups to get players at that position of need because every team knows what we’re drafting and resulted in better prospects being passed over because we had to fill that roster hole. I’ve given Beane a lot of credit in the past, but he’s made too many mistakes in strategy as well as execution of picks and trades for me to really believe in him these days. I hope he turns that around this offseason.