GunnerBill

I do think the drop off is significant. But agree Cook isn't sitting out. He will play.

The first para is only true if you are looking at the micro. Its about the macro. And the owners will not be successful in cutting the percentage (its 48%). If anything yhey may have to increase it or offer another concession to get their 18th game.

In the case of one player, sure. But as a general principle, no. If players don't drive up the market price for their positions as the cap increases that benefits the owners. I get as a Bills fan it is easy to look at the micro as to how it affects this team and nothing else but you have to look at the macro across the league. The NFLPA and the players themselves have to push the envelope.

Just on Benford specifically I think if I was his agent I'd have been advising him to leave some money on the table for as much security as possible. He has not made a ton as a 6th round pick and the concussion history is a concern. That one was the rare case where as an agent you say "look you can hold out for your max value if you want to but the sensible play here is take the $37.5m guaranteed and if in two years you have stayed healthy and further proven yourself then I can always go back for more money." I don't think he is quite a top 5 corner by the way. But he isn't more than a place or two off... I just think the context on his means the Bills probably did get a small hometown discount there.

I accept the alternative for the player isn't poverty. But I will always be in favour of the players getting the money and not the owners. And for running backs in particular the market has been tough. I have no problem with Cook wanting top of the market value. If I was his agent that is what I'd be pitching for too.

The guy you need to compare him to is Big Ben IMO. And as he got beyond 30 he definitely changed his game. He was never a runner as such but he used to get outside the pocket at take licks in his 20s to try and make a play down the field and that faded away completely in his 30s. However, until the elbow surgery in year 17 for him he was still playing at a very high level. And his comeback the year after that he was still a serviceable game manager he just couldn't throw deep any more. I think Josh can have a long career. But he won't always be able to do some of the things that make him so unique.

Personally I think there are a few factors, but the two most significant are: 1. I think they genuinely do not think he is a very good pass protecting back (and it's true, he isn't). Ty Johnson has a specific role on the team as a result which results in a 3rd back stealing a lot of snaps and some carries; and 2. They just believe in rotating backs through. It is who they have been since they have been here. Again I say this a lot but when you wanna know what Brandon Beane believe in go look at the Carolina Panthers. They had DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart sharing the load in the backfield together for years. It is a bit like their belief with regards to rotating defensive lineman. It's philosophical for them.

This is exactly the point. If the Bills can get difference making explosive plays from one of their pass catchers they should absolutely not pay James Cook. But they haven't had that. The only guy on the offense who makes explosive plays aside from Josh is Cook. If that is still the case come February / March you have to ask what is the best way of securing that for your football team in 2026. I very much doubt a wide receiver who is anything like a slam dunk to give you that hits FA.... so you are either left with the option to trade an asset for one and then pay them (the DK Metcalf debate all over again) or you pay Cook to provide them from the running back position. I think paying a running back is absolutely sub-optimal in this NFL. It might be slightly less sub-optimal than leaving Josh with nobody beyond himself to make explosive plays.

They dialled his rushes down by 30 and he played a game fewer. It equates to about one rush per game. Which I think we can safely attribute to the Bills being a 13-3 football team and load managing across their roster rather than one that was balls to the wall the whole home stretch in 2023 to make the post season. The "oh he is too small" is something dinosaurs stuck in the 1990s say. And I am not even banging the table to keep Cook. But he could take a larger workload, his size does not hold him back at all. He wins because he has elite vision.

I didn't though. I chimed into a thread to say Tom Brady is the GOAT and there is no room for debate. That's it. I did not insert myself in anyone's conversation. I didn't quote anyone, I didn't respond to any particular point by anyone, I simply made a statement.

This is b*ll*cks.

I wasn't having any debate. About anything. Brady is the GOAT. That is all I said. But to your point... how do you know the greatest isn't Graham or Unitas?

I didn't see Montana play, nope. I didn't see Unitas play either, or Otto Graham... But Brady took it to the point where it was beyond debate and you don't need to have watched all those other guys. I didn't see Pele play either, but I don't need to. Messi is the GOAT.

Brady is the GOAT. There is no argument or debate needed.

So he is touch and go for the Ravens game.

He will if he is ready to play. But this majorly reduces those chances.

The rules have changed significantly in favour of offense since then.

I think that was the plan, 100%. But he wasn't very good last pre-season and never made it past 3rd team oline. The one game he played serious snaps in week 18 at New England the pass blocking was not clever. Then he comes into camp on PUP. I do not think his roster spot is as safe as some think it is. And Chase Lundt is every inch a classic Kromer OL, whereas VPG isn't in terms of physical profile. It is a big summer for VPG and he needs to get on the field quick or else it can go sideways for him.

Also worth saying even if you ARE a "rugby phenom" that does not guarantee anything in football. Louis Rees-Zammit was one of the best young rugby players in the entire world. After a year trying to make it in the NFL he has called it quits and gone back to rugby.

Anderson is a lock but I think every day Lundt plays well and VPG doesn't get on the field the chances of Lundt > VPG increase. I will be very interested to see how they use Lundt in pre-season. He played tackle in college but I think they might well see him inside at guard. And if they think he can do some of that as a rookie even then I think he makes the roster. Anderson was the backup center last year, VPG never progressed past 3rd string. Maybe the Bills find a way to keep both, but rostering 10 OL or by IRing VPG.

I am not disputing his athleticism. But until the Bills drafted him he was just a really athletic guy who had tried his hand at a lot of sports without ever really being any good at them.

For a start he played Rugby Union, not Rugby League. Secondly 8th tier Rugby Union makes it sound like there are 7 leagues above it and he was playing in the 8th best league in the UK. He wasn't. We have 38 pro clubs across three national leagues (although while many of the clubs in tier 3 are "professional" the majority of their players are semi-pro). Then tiers 4 and 5 are semi-pro and contain 3 regional structures, each of 38 clubs. Tier 6 is the top tier of amateur rugby with 144 clubs playing in regional competition across the UK. Tier 7 is then your county leagues - well over 200 teams nationally playing only against teams from their own area. That is still a level above where Clayton played in the second division of the Hampshire League. That is very literally a league for your "average Joes" who like Clayton did, work run of the mill office jobs or stacking supermarket shelves all week and then enjoy running around the rugby field smashing into people for 80 minutes on a weekend. Clayton played one season at that level and didn't dominate. He was big and fast but not much of a rugby player. For comparison I played one season of 6th tier soccer which is inordinately higher standard and more competitive than 8th tier Rugby Union. There is no comparison. Even the 4 years I played of 8th and 9th tier soccer were of a superior standard to a season in Rugby Union's 8th tier. I am most definitely an average joe! None of that is to dispute that Clayton is a rare athlete. He ran a 12 second 100 meters aged 15 and you just don't find that freakish combination of speed and size very often. But he has tried soccer, rugby, athletics, boxing and tennis without finding a sport where he can channel that natural athleticism. Maybe football is the one for him, I certainly hope so, but when people refer to him as a rugby star... or even a rugby player it just isn't really true. He was a supermarket shelf stacker who played a bit of rugby at the weekend.

We did see. Week 18. I'd be surprised if White turns that around in pre-season, but it is not impossible.

I mean when they both played week 18 Trubisky looked a million miles better - and he didn't look good.

So I do think McDuffie is more scheme specific than the other three top guys. I do think that is fair. If he landed with a vanilla DC who just wanted to stick him at LCB down in and down out in a zone scheme and say "play your quarter" I think you would be taking away his special. But he is different league to Sneed. I always said Sneed was a product of the scheme and overrated. McDuffie is legit.