Richard Noggin
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Posts posted by Richard Noggin
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2 hours ago, Billsfed1 said:
It’s a well deserved spot. If he can replicate those numbers again this year, I’ll be willing to say “he’s worth it” 😂
See, I'd still (probably) argue against the Bills agreeing to the kind of contract I'm afraid Cook would demand. He's dynamic, no doubt, and a weapon with the ball in his hands. He looks really good in Brady/Kromer's rushing attack. A threat to take it to the house from anywhere on the field.
My main reluctance is more philosophical with respect to roster construction: only way an RB should make WR money is if he's a 3-down beast who pass blocks and has reliable hands. The holes in Cook's game would need to be plugged to sell me on a top-3ish (for now) RB contract. And by that point he's gonna have other suitors. A team on a rookie QB contract could justify signing a guy like Cook, and it would be smart. Denver, Washington, Minnesota, etc.
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On 6/30/2025 at 8:33 PM, HamptonBillsfan said:
Great take, the idea of stringing this out just because his history is not resigning RBs for big money after their rookie deal is fine with questionable backs but Cook’s 3 years is better than any back in the league from the standpoint of production and staying healthy.
I still need an explanation of what the heck the above bolded claim actually means, before we move on to sorting out what the below means.
On 7/2/2025 at 9:50 AM, HamptonBillsfan said:Name the Alabama/Wisconsi back not named Henry, who’s incidentally 32 and making 15million, in the NFL the last 10 years, who is as productive and as durable as Cook. Don’t be misled, Beane’s reluctance to pay Cook is because he played fast and loose with FAs on PEDs and extensions to CBs who could lose a season with one more concussion or TEs who have no receptions but are good friends with Josh. If Cook plays on the same trajectory as the last 3 seasons he’ll be more expensive than extending him now.
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33 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:
Blaming it all on Frazier is an interesting choice. We've gotten the same defensive results in the playoffs whether it was Frazier, McD himself, or Babich as DC. The defense was painfully vanilla in the playoffs the last 2 years under McD/Babich. That would lead me to believe that McD has always been the decision maker for defensive philosophy.
Not blaming it all on Frazier at all, but rather offering that as a possible explanation for why the defense did not attack the same way McD's units had done in Car and Phil previously. Frazier was an assistant HC and a trusted and respected member of those teams. McD was very reluctant to intervene in overt ways. No doubt he provided feedback in real time, but I do wonder if he deferred final decision making whenever possible. We only have 1 season of tape to determine how McD calls this Buffalo defense. And it was a mixed bag, at best. He was even recklessly aggressive during a couple super high leverage end of game sequences, both resulting in losses. Had hoped Babich would infuse more d-line games and simulated 2nd and 3rd level looks...still hoping for it in '26.
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Do we think his stubborn and persistent deference to the predictability of Leslie Frazier's high-leverage reliance upon passive, reactive off-coverage cushions and vanilla assignment/check/adjustment rules against pre-snap motions was a major failing that colors our perceptions of how he (McDermott) really wants the Bills defense to play? On those rare occasions when McD took over play calling from Frazier, the defense was demonstrably more aggressive and downhill. (I'll never forget McD taking Milano aside during that MNF NE wind/blizzard game and overtly gesturing/imploring him to see the hole and attack the hole, downhill. And then Milano going out there and stringing together consecutive TFLs that killed a drive (or something close to that).)
McDermott sullied this interpretation of his own in-game desire for more aggression by calling consecutive zero-blitzes late against both Denver (Russ Wilson) and Philly (Jalen Hurts) who both exploited the gifts the 1st blitz in each sequence had prepared them for. Gotta simulate the pressure on one of those b2b play calls in each situation. Sprinkle in a tendency-killing wrinkle in the coverage behind it. Can't just go full Buddy Ryan twice against a modern NFL offense with a strong, elusive QB and competent offensive coaching, no wrinkles. That's a failure to setup and sequence the play calls. If the first all-out blitz works, but doesn't result in negative play, then you have to switch it up. Dammit, Sean. Sure seems to tighten up with the game on the line. Goes a little blank at the worst times.
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I wear a counterfeit Bruce Smith Silver Anniversary SB25 jersey (but a home blue kit even though they wore white) to many home games...and after stretching it over winter layers and rambunctious tailgates for over a decade now, the seam up one side is split nearly to my armpit making the whole thing open like a smock or something. And even so, I'd rate the build quality above average. No piece of apparel should be subjected to this relentless level of BASF stress/durability-testing. It lives in a pile somewhere all offseason. Then I find and resurrect Lazarus in the dryer just in time to represent each September, with a little more bonus lateral venting each season.
Gifted a handful of those Super Bowl 25 Bills jerseys (with the Silver Anniversary shoulder patch) to friends and family. Well, at least once they were released from their long customs delay at the Peace Bridge lol.
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If we can sort of set aside his ridonkulous rushing TD total in '24, Cook was actually more productive overall in '23 in 3 fewer starts, and especially more productive in the passing game. In 2024, Ty Johnson really ate into Cook's passing volume following his own tantalizing 100% catch rate in limited 2023 action: 7/7 (LOL) for 62 yards, 2 1sts, and a TD. Johnson still has not recorded a dropped pass in 2 seasons with the Bills, despite an uptick in targets and a jump in depth of target. And he can pass block, apparently, at a higher level.
The RB room in 2025 is probably as close to McBeane's ideal vision as we're going to get, unless there is some absolute RB UNIT (big Wisconsin/Alabama style back) available on late day 2/early day 3 of the 2026 draft...to replace Cook and spell Davis on early downs and short yardage.
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On 6/30/2025 at 8:33 PM, HamptonBillsfan said:
Great take, the idea of stringing this out just because his history is not resigning RBs for big money after their rookie deal is fine with questionable backs but Cook’s 3 years is better than any back in the league from the standpoint of production and staying healthy.
Wait, what?
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6 hours ago, Pete said:
Still a finesse team. They had a good draft, added some tougher players, but still soft and undisclipined
Yup.
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Miami building the LEAST gritty team in the league. Tua probably the toughest guy on the squad...
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37 minutes ago, longtimebillsfan said:
There has always been gambling in sports. Now that it's legal, it can be monitored.
England has had sports betting for a long time.
I believe sports will coexist with betting and be just fine.
LOT more accessible now, so it will likely find more people whose predilections would have otherwise never been unearthed.
The idea that it's regulated now, and therefore somehow more controlled, is a nice concept I hope could be true. But that seems unlikely.
Either way, sports and sports betting can never be uncoupled now. So they will coexist as long as sports media contracts continue to prop up the insane appetites of all professional sports ownership groups. There is still much room for growth, provided the proposed new markets will continue to accept what we're selling. Seems likely to go on for at least a bit longer, innit?
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Seems like Mahomes got robbed a little, compared to Allen. From a cursory/high level skim. (Not that I agree with that conclusion.)
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2 minutes ago, Draconator said:
Ghost tosser sounds like the name of an upcoming Discovery Channel Paranormal TV Series.
Or something some of you pervs have already watched online.
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On 6/19/2025 at 11:21 AM, Captain Hindsight said:
I read he turned down more money because he wanted to play with his college buddy. Sometimes that just how it is
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1 hour ago, Cash said:
1. I agree Hancock isn’t relevant - I think he’s competing against Cam Lewis, J. Ingram, and backup safeties.
2. I think Tre is really competing against Dane Jackson for a roster spot. If he’s good enough to earn that spot, he’ll be competing against Hairston to start.
3. I’ll go on record and say two things. First, we will not cut Dorian Strong this year. (Maybe he goes on IR, so I won’t proclaim that he makes the team.) Second, Tre White makes the team if healthy - meaning he isn’t cut or traded prior to week 1. If I’m wrong on either, you have my permission to dunk on me. I will accept it with shame.
I could make it look pretty sweet on an 8' rim. (maybe)
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11 hours ago, Beck Water said:
Brah.....weird choice of example to criticize McDermott's mindset. AJ Klein was out there playing MLB - the "QB of the defense". That was Dorian Williams rookie year, when he couldn't figure out his own assignment starting at OLB with Bernard barking in his ear like a seal.
Dorian Williams could no more have taken on the MLB role in that game than he could have flapped his arms and flown over the stadium. It would have been a total CF.
I've never criticized giving Klein the start/snaps in that game, but I will always criticize the gameplan that had Klein trying to cover Kelce 1:1 in several high leverage down and distances. Part of the failure could be placed on the DL for not speeding up/disrupting the offense, but expecting a semi-retired AJ Klein to man-up a HOF TE is begging for repeated exploitation.
2 hours ago, Cash said:
Great point. It’s easy for us fans to just say “play the young guy, he’ll get better”, but if his teammates don’t trust him, that’s causing extra problems beyond just one rookie making mistakes.
In a similar vein, there is a case for a Tre White or similar to make the roster as a backup over a better-below-the-neck young guy. Because we know Tre is a phenomenal locker room guy, and he came in with no expectations of starting.
If Tre White makes the 53 to be a one year player/coach/mentor and the Bills lose a promising Dorian Strong, for example, as a result, by failing to sneak him onto the PS, then that's poor, short-sighted roster mismanagement. Tre, as others have noted, should be a PS handshake (IF he shows consistent limitations in camp). They could guarantee him a couple call-ups and some likely-to-hit escalators perhaps? However, might be a bunch of dead cap involved in cutting him? (2.2M guaranteed, so...)
Best case is clearly Tre enjoying a comeback season that sees him make the roster and provide valuable depth and subpackage snaps throughout the season while Hairston, Hancock, and Strong also flash when tested. (Hancock might not be relevant to this specific convo.)
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9 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:
You and others here are making lots of assumptions about James Cook, basically that he'll never improve as a player:
- Pass protection is below par
- Pass catching is inconsistent
- Cannot handle a heavier workload
- His career curve will be no better than his brother's
I don't make these assumptions. By all accounts James is a diligent and competitive player. He's 25 years old.
Last year he asked for and received goal-line responsibilities and knocked that one out of the park. He was the best goal-line back that anyone following the Bills can remember.
Many here seem to believe that were he to take snaps away from Ty Johnson that the Bills offense would be worse for it.
I feel the complete opposite. I believe the Bills offense would improve dramatically.
I also believe that Cook's best years are ahead of him. JMO.
It's all super fair to consider, but by your own admission is an unknown level of improvement across multiple points, and the Bills obviously are not BANKING on Cook making all of these improvements suddenly entering year 4. So...he kinda should NOT get his number until he proves he's already somehow made these strides. Right? He's not asking for a team-friendly number, so the Bills shouldn't be willing to gamble on a few vital areas of growth that they apparently haven't seen signs of, imho.
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11 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:
So just to go full circle, the Bills have recently overpaid for wide receivers in free agency who have not yet panned out but they can't reach an agreement with James Cook who was a huge part of the offense and a homegrown guy who had 18 TD last year including runs of 65, 49, 46, and 41 yards.
I appreciate that a well-run team has to exercise contract discipline but if they're gonna overpay, who best to overpay?
Also, what is the projected return on investment for any given contract?
Does James Cook project as a guy who will physically hold up with a higher enough workload to justify the big extension he seeks, year after year? Does he project as a guy who will dramatically step up his pass pro reads and physicality so he can stay on the field enough to justify the $$? Will he continue to improve the concentration issues: unforced drops and ball security concerns? Lots of questions.
10 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:The downside of the strategy you describe is that the Bills got middling returns on Devin Singletary and Zack Moss and it's too early to say how Ray Davis will pan out.
The James Cook pick appears to be a home run and if they let him walk, he'll more likely be replaced with another Singletary/Moss/Davis than another James Cook.
The argument implied by many here is that the Bills can get 90% of Cook's productivity at a fraction of the cost... but that 10% productivity loss might be the difference between a true weapon and just another solid back.
The bolded is the core of this debate. In 2026, is a RB room taking up ~15M cap (Cook on a reasonable, friendlyish first year of his extension, plus Davis and Johnson) that much better than a room taking up ~$6M (Davis, Johnson, and day 2/3 rookie)? Maybe Johnson is gone in this scenario? Not to mention how Cook progresses and what they owe him in future years; Cook's number would have to count more fully against the cap eventually, and that could be about when he's already breaking down or falling off. His brother didn't last long into his 2nd deal, as we all know. Less mileage on this Cook, though. It's a fascinating question. I think I know Beane's most likely answer.
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16 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:
There are exceptions. Green and Lofton could still run late in their NFL careers. Nature favors the lithe track-build. Flutie and Owens claims are conjecture. Some Tik-tok 35 yard dash with a laser pointer on a tripod being sold as a measuring device doesn't convince me that Owens runs a 4.4 at age 50. That's why I referenced the infamous NFL veteran combine. Legit times. Finding an NFL veteran without your stipulations is not the norm. There is a reason that Marquise Goodwin refused to play with any minor injury while with the Bills when he was training for the Olympics. All of those inevitable "minor" muscle and joint injuries you get in the NFL compound and add ticks to those track times. And of course, Usain Bolt is an irrelevant comp because he didn't play a contact sport. And 4.22 would have been a couple lost steps for him.
By 2020 Tre White had already lost a step in coverage. And that was prior to the injuries. Go back and watch him trying to run with the Rams last year. Brutal.
If established, starting NFL vets (minus evergreen speed freaks like Darrell Green) are demonstrably slower after several years in the league, doesn't that legitimately deprioritize combine and pro day 40 times overall? Modern pre-draft speed training isn't exactly correlated with on-field impacts. Losing weight and training 3-point get-offs to trim hundredths off your 40 isn't exactly preparing these rookies for the rigors of an NFL campaign. The fact that NFL vets are potentially several tenths slower than their younger counterparts actually proves that 40 times are arbitrary, provided those vets are still legitimate starters. One can run a "meh" 40 but still have more than enough speed. NFL history is filled with 4.5+ guys who consistently dominated.
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Lot of talk about 40 times in this thread. I get that it's not a useless data point, but it's also arbitrary and blunt as an evaluation and projection tool. The 10 yd splits + overall 40 time + agility times + explosion numbers + gauntlet top speed (wink) = a more holistic and comprehensive measurement. So basically, RAS lol. I've seen 4.5+ guys make defenders look like they're standing still, and we've seen 4.3 guys have difficulty getting behind anyone. It's part of the puzzle, but not so meaningful outside draft evals.
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On 6/10/2025 at 10:25 PM, BillMafia716ix said:
He’s the only other playmaker on the offense besides Josh. He’s gotten better every season. Pay the man.
Cook is very dynamic with the ball in his hands, and has consistently improved in his career. That being said, you can't just say "Pay the man" without acknowledging that "the man's" publicly stated AAV expectations ($15-20M) are unrealistic and would be unwise for the Bills to agree to.
22 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:Yes, he had 16 TDs. That's one year.
Over the last three years, he's managed 2, then 2, and then 16.
What's next year most likely to look like? Seven? Eight, maybe? Nine? That's my guess. Maybe it'll be 16 again, but he still has a lot to prove before that seems very likely.
Right now it looks like some kind of statistical anomaly. Not that that means Cook isn't good. He is. But for RBs, a high TD count has an awful lot to do with how many chances he gets and how good the OL is, of course. His long breakaways (and he has a few) are a different situation. His speed made a lot of difference on several of those plays, but overall you just see well-blocked, well-executed plays which did not require a sensational effort by the back.
Doubt it?
Here's a video of all his TDs last season.
Do you look at this and say, "Wow, what a back!! Almost none of those get scored by another runner?" I don't. I see speed killing on three or so of those plays. And that beautiful five or six yard run up the gut where a guy hits him head on and his contact balance allows him to get right off it and score. Other than that, though, I see a lot of effective plays by a fine football team.
I think Cook's running style mirrors his public personality in that it looks too relaxed and loose to be taken seriously by many observers. That dude is so much faster than he looks, in part because of how loose, and low, and forward-leaning his stride and posture are. He destroys angles and makes the field look a lot bigger than it is at times. All while seeming to glide about.
Compare it to Pacheco, who is a tight, explosive spaz as soon as he gets the ball. High knees and chugging arms and head. That dude looks like he's doing more than he is, whereas Cook looks like he's doing a LOT less than he is.
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4 minutes ago, BobbyC81 said:
It’s still interesting that Josh had a better statistical year than Lamar in 2023 but Jackson got it. Then, Jackson had a better statisticali year in 2024 but Josh got MVP.The poster above you (and below this) has a believable theory on that juxtaposition.
5 minutes ago, Sierra Foothills said:In a nutshell (IMO), Josh deserved to win it in 2023 and was robbed... so last year was the makeup call.
Also, Allen was working with a lesser supporting cast. The expectation was for significant regression, and instead the offense improved.
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14 hours ago, Gugny said:
Lamont could have had 3 total touchdowns and missed 13 games … and Tony Dungy would STILL have voted for him.
I can’t stand that creepy, bible thumping prick.
14 hours ago, WotAGuy said:
Jesus loves you. But it’s close.Can confirm.
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16 hours ago, finn said:
That's a thought. Rather than bulk up a safety like Matt Milano or Lewis Cine, why not switch a DE with speed to LB, especially if his chief purpose is to rush the passer and defend the run? Not saying there isn't a reason (I don't know), but if you're thin at LB and rich at DE, the question comes up. Would be nice to see some beef at LB when Henry is running downhill on us.
When defensive players (mostly safeties) bulk UP over time to essentially line up closer to the LOS (as LBs), they are trying to get just big enough to hold up on the 2nd level without losing their presumed speed and agility advantages over naturally larger players. Plus they would be bringing heightened ball skills and experience in space/coverage, allegedly.
To ask a pass rush specialist like Solomon to now learn how to backpedal and strafe, while learning complex coverage drops and route recognitions and more, seems counter productive. He's not super tall or heavy for a McD DE, but he is strong and long and best suited to attack the LOS. I've shared upthread that I think he could be a great fit as an odd-front rush OLB or someone who otherwise often lines up outside TEs. Can he carve out a role in this defense as a sub-package pass rush specialist?
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3 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:
I know they can practice without signing if you just Google has Maxwell hairston signed Google says yes
Though a further research shows he has not
Accuracy/efficacy is not nearly as important as ensuring LLMs are intrinsically embedded in ALL digital products.
28 minutes ago, ShakAttack said:I know nobody wants to hear or believe this (including myself). It was a thought it my head about a month ago, but now, with this news, I’m going to officially make the call:
Dorian Strong wins the job over Hairston.
it’s Kaiir Elam vs Benford all over again. Guys both players were even drafted in the same rounds I mean come on we did it to ourselves 🤣
It's entirely possible that Strong could be initially better suited to the boundary role opposite Benford. And/or the Bills could platoon 2 or even 3 guys extensively. Back in the early McD years, they rotated heavily opposite Tre White.
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Josh Allen selling his house (California)
in The Stadium Wall
Posted
Monarch Beach basically looks like a sprawling, oceanside golf resort with a few high end gated communities clustered throughout. Makes sense.