Tulsabillsfanz

At least there weren’t any major injuries to players on our 2 deep, but every injury to any player is important & unfortunate.

The only thing Buffalo accomplished was no apparent significant injuries. Otherwise that was an embarrassing display of football. It makes you wonder what they’ve been practicing for the last 4 weeks. Poor fundamentals, poor execution.

That may be the worst introduction to a sports interview I’ve ever seen. Not knowing Barry Sanders #20 Detroit Lions jersey .…and assuming it’s the jersey of a rookie QB for the Cleveland Browns….on a national SPORTS show! That’s beyond embarrassing. I’m glad I no longer watch any ESPN talk shows & I’m sad ESPN now has so many events that I like to watch that I feel the need to subscribe to ESPN+ to watch them. ESPN started out in such a promising way. It would be great if they returned to focusing on sports and hired employees primarily on their knowledge of sports.

I’m glad they were able to make the deal. It was not looking promising to me every time Cook kept promoting 15M per year. I thought 3 years @ 10-12 was the fair range. Beane apparently negotiated hard to keep it close to that range. One concern I had with the contract was the 4 years, especially considering James will turn 30 in September of that final year and his brother Dalvin declined a lot at 28. However, Dalvin had much more wear on his legs at a young age. He had 687 carries at Florida State vs James 230 carries at Georgia. Overall, Dalvin (now 30) has 2044 carries (NFL & college). James (26 in September) has 763 carries (NFL & college). Hopefully James lighter workload so far in his career will allow him to still have his speed throughout this contract.

This is a voice from my childhood! When we moved away from Buffalo to Tulsa in the late 1960s when I was a kid, there was minimal opportunities to see the Bills live on television. So, many of my Bills memories from that era were highlight shows with THAT voice! Thanks so much for sharing this!

Cook’s job right now is to be out there practicing with his teammates, helping the team get better. So, sitting out practice when he’s healthy means he is NOT taking care of his “business”. Imagine if every player would just sit out of practice whenever they want and call it “business“. If there’s no penalties or fines allowed for this selfish behavior, they need to correct this in the next collective bargaining agreement. I don’t know if this is Cook’s intention, but I think this move by Cook reduces the chances of Buffalo offering him a multi year contract. I agree Cook has every right to make as much money as he can. I just disagree this is the way to do it. If he believes Buffalo’s offer isn’t enough, use that perceived slight as motivation. Get a big injury insurance policy. Then go prove your worth on the field this season and sign next spring for as much as you can get, wherever you choose to sign.

I understand Beane’s frustration. Cook has said he will be there when it’s time to play. He said he doesn’t want to be a distraction to the team. Now, he’s not practicing when it’s time to practice and be ready for the season. He’s becoming a distraction for the rest of the team. I wouldn’t trust Cook to be 100% physically and mentally there when we need him. He’s focused on himself, not the team. I hate depending on guys with that mentality.

So the AP was wrong. Tony Dungy actually voted for Josh Allen. I’m glad Dungy was objective about the process. I may not always agree with his football picks, but I like him.

I don’t blame Cook or any player for negotiating the best contract possible, especially considering the short length of the average NFL career. I do blame Cook or any player for negotiating in a very public way and becoming a distraction to building a championship team. Publicly demanding certain $$, scrubbing the Bills from your social media accounts and putting your Buffalo area home on the market are all distractions and a negative for team building. It creates another walking on egg shells situation.

If the season begins the same week as last year, that would mean our last regular season game is on the road again.

One thing Beane didn’t throw out there is the difficulty in staying competitive, year after year. The NFL is purposely set up for parity. That’s why you have a salary cap. That’s why the best teams choose last. I know Josh Allen is the reason Buffalo stays on top of its division. Beane did draft him. But it isn’t easy to sign a WR1 or DE1, etc., when you’re picking 25th or later every year. I’m sure that’s an underlying frustration for Beane.

Buffalo ended up with 3 players that were picked #24, #35 & #62 in this TBD mock draft. Considering we started the draft with picks #30, #56 & #62, Beane did pretty well.

I watched NFL Network for this year’s draft. They’re not perfect, but they’re much more enjoyable (& much less annoying) than ESPN.

Landon Jackson was the #43 prospect on NFL Network (Daniel Jeremiah) board. Getting Jackson at #72 is very high value on his board.

Unfortunately, I guessed correctly with Starks to Baltimore.

I’d really like Starks, but I think the Ravens will pick Starks, if available.

Bills fans here have debated for weeks whether Grant is a good pick at 30. The Dolphins grab him at 13. It sure looks like they could’ve traded down at least 5-7 spots & still drafted Grant. Not a great pick for Miami, imo.

No matter whether you think Cook is normally a humble, team player or not, he has taken the me-first mode since the end of the season. He has complained he wasn’t used more last season . He has scrubbed the Bills off his social media. He has tried to negotiate publicly, declaring he deserves 15 mil. per season on social media. He has put his house up for sale. He is a no show to the first off-season workouts ( yes, non-mandatory). All his actions are me-first, Diggs type moves. None are humble, team-first moves. If Buffalo does pull off a draft day trade, I will completely understand.

I ran a business for 36 years. We went from 10 up to 30+ employees during that time. I learned many times over that difficult to please employees were almost always negative for the company. It was amazing how much there was a collective sigh of relief & an improvement in office morale after they left. Most times remaining employees shared their happiness after a change was made. We fortunately did very well over the years, & I always believed keeping a good team attitude in the workplace was a key part of our success. We had many long term employees. My biggest regrets over the years was not making the needed changes soon enough. I think the Bills had that sigh of relief after Diggs was traded last offseason. I think the Diggs experience will make Buffalo less likely to put up with much drama from Cook. I would recommend a trade sooner rather than later if they see things heading south.

I definitely don’t want Diggs back. The team performance & the locker room atmosphere improved with him gone. I hope he signs with the Cowboys. They deserve each other.

I welcome him back as a backup. My concern is McDermott will start him. We really need to improve our secondary, especially the safety position, to get over the hump.

This has to be one of most defeatist threads I’ve seen. Why are we looking to come up with new problems that don’t even exist. I mean what happens if a world war starts this off season and our best players are drafted? What happens if the war lasts 6 years and Josh’s best years are lost. I’m sure everyone can up with one. There’s always enough real problems to worry about. We don’t need Buffalo fans dreaming up more!

Miami, Phoenix or LA. Although I would be so focused on the game, I probably wouldn’t notice the city it’s in.

I was surprised that Denver & Baltimore never adjusted to our left guard rush-push. Romo kept calling out how we run it over left guard every single time. KC was the first team to actually adjust to that. Unfortunately, we didn’t counter their adjustment. Although, I honestly think we made that last first down.

If Josh & our offense were facing the Buffalo playoff defense, we would’ve scored easily.