RoscoeParrish

That line of thinking making sense if the most important thing to Edwards is to play at a moderately high level for the next 2-3 years of his career. If his goal is to make 3x his career earnings in the next 2-3 years (which for most NFL players, it is), he will likely seek out the payday. He’s made $12M in his career, but his career is almost over imo. Certainly on the back nine. If he gets a nice offer of 3 for $30M with $22M guaranteed, I do not think he chooses fit. Hell, this topic is about a player like Cook in a great situation with a great OL and an All-Time QB potentially walking over $3M.

It’s certainly possible. I was kind of assuming a discount with those ballpark numbers. Edwards has made no money his whole career. He was signed and extended for backup OG money after being a day 3 pick. He’s 28, which means this could be his only payday. I think he’s supremely underrated as a very consistent IOL guy. Getting him at 3y $7M AAV would be a steal. I bet he gets closer to $10M imo.

They don’t have to hit FA to get market value though. the Bills have massive money put out to their bookend OTs. But they are right around league average at OL spend in 2025 because the interior OL is so cheap. Thats going to change, dramatically. David Edwards is making $3M AAV. McGovern is making $7.5M AAV. Let’s say McGoven asks for $12M AAV (which is top 7 C money) and Edwards asks for $10M which is top 20 OG money, there’s an extra $11.5M to account for. That’s basically the raise Cook is asking for. Sure, I know we can just say “add void years” but we do that all the time already. In 2026, we have void dead money on: Bosa Larry O Milano McGovern Jones AJE for a grand total of $29M in voided dead money. So there goes the cap jump and then some. I think we can make it work to get them all back but then this is the team without significant adds for the rest of Josh’s prime.

I’m not sure. OL feels like one of those positions where they ALWAYS get overpaid in FA. They make take a premium to keep together. I love Cook. I think he’s our biggest non-Josh threat on offense. I’m not sure he will be 2 years from now and “paying everyone” limits your roster flexibility in a way that makes me a bit uncomfortable. I don’t want to wake up in 2026 with a Cody Ford/Roger Saffold type OL liability.

I think you have the mirage part backwards. the extension doesn’t factor in this season because they are already under contract. You aren’t getting an extra year, they are already here. There’s a reason this isn’t done by anybody, including agents and that’s a good thing. Do you want Cook’s agent to say, “well, technically a 3 for $45M is really like 4 for $50M so we want an extension at 3 years for $55M?”

Demarco Murray saw his YPC drop a full yard going to Philly from Dallas. the underrated part of this discussion is the OL. Edwards is an FA next year. McGovern the year after. Are we letting them walk to pay Cook?

What do you think is the Bills biggest remaining need? I feel like with our draft, we have filled most of the holes on defense. Definitively shored up DL. Safety room is a bit of a jamboree, but we have some young players there. I don’t think the Bills have the weakest WR room in the league. I don’t think they need the best WR room in the NFL to be a great offense. I think if I could add a top 10 player at any position tomorrow, it would be WR with a bullet. Can’t all of those things be true?

There is a chicken-egg scenario of “Tre White is now CB5 after being CB1 three years ago.” Does that mean the CB position is just loads better or that Tre White is not the same Tre White.

Oh no I’m sorry I wasn’t clear. I was responding to @Alphadawg7’s assertion that bringing back Gabe as a WR5 means the WR’s are much better. The issue with that comment is that it conflates the opinions of the fans with the opinion of the GM. Brandon Beane clearly felt like Gabe Davis was good enough to be a WR2 two years ago. He may even still today, there’s some reporting in this topic of how much he loved Gabe. I didn’t love Gabe much at all. I thought he was a limited boundary WR with questionable hands but big game potential. And at the time he walked, I didn’t want the Bills to keep him and Diggs. I’m not sure Beane felt the same way, but arrived at the same conclusion of letting him walk. And a year later, signed a similar player in Palmer in that role. So, in conclusion, I would take Gabe Davis back in a reduced rotational role because l didn’t think he was good enough as a full time WR2 but I think you can do far worse, and I’m not convinced that anyone on the depth chart not named Shakir is definitively much better and suspect that some of them may be much worse. I’m not sure if the Bills and Beane agree. Beane may think Gabe should be our #1 boundary WR target by a mile. I think that would be a mistake. I think his point was that a team offering Gabe $10M this season wouldn’t change how much Gabe makes this season.

I don’t think Brandon Beane would envision a Gabe reunion as adding a WR5. Jmo.

The second Gabe Davis was released, Elijah Moore became an uncuttable roster lock, which is probably surprising to him and his agent as he was initially a FA that lasted post-draft, and is on his 3rd team in 4 years.

I don’t think you can argue Mack’s stats are system-based. His career averages are 25 catches, 314 yards and 2 TDs over 17 games. He beat some of those numbers in Buffalo but he was pretty close to his career average, playing with the MVP. His career catch rate is 59.6%. In Buffalo, with Josh throwing, it was 62%. Pretty close imo. I don’t think Gabe comes here and puts up 800 yards with great efficiency. Let me be very clear. I wouldn’t want him to get the target needed to get those numbers. He does have some issues with hands and other stuff. My contention is that Gabe is a proven more productive WR than Mack Hollins, as evidenced by their careers, and I think that if he did return to Buffalo, he may have something to offer on some deep routes and his willingness to block. If it brings us to an amicable compromise, I would say Gabe has more to offer deep on the boundary than Mack but Mack is more sure-handed. Both are good blockers and good locker room guys and I don’t really want to split hairs here. I just don’t think Gabe getting WR4 snaps on running downs and a deep shot or two a game is a recipe for disaster. I have ZERO interest in trying to force him the football like we did in 2022 or 2023. Just as I would have had zero interest with the Bills doing that with Mack.

None of those stats were his career best in Buffalo except for TDs.

No, I’m looking at his 2022 season in Las Vegas where he doubled up his catches and yards compared to 2024. Mack got a $2M AAV contract back then. He got a $4M AAV contract this season on a team that paid Diggs with a torn ACL $21M. and we all know what WR contracts have done over the last few years. If you want to play the contract game, Gabe is a year removed from $39M over 3 years. Edit: I’m not sure how I became the Gabe Davis defender here. I never thought he was special and I’m glad we didn’t pay him. I want off this ride

Mack Hollins posted 57 catches for 690 yards in Las Vegas 2 years ago. He had 378 yards in Buffalo in 13 starts. Not to slight Mack at all, but we have evidence of what Gabe did with Josh and what Mack did with Josh and it’s not close.

Huh? Mack didn’t even have the best year of his career here. And his year wasn’t comparable to Gabe’s years with Josh.

There’s no consistency with a lot of average WRs. If they were consistently great, they would be great. Josh Palmer last year had 2 or fewer catches in 9 of his 15 games. I’m just not sure who is the model of consistency you think we have besides Shakir? Is this like a “the devil we know is worse than the devil we don’t” situation? Elijah Moore had EIGHT interceptions when targeted last year. You’re telling me he can’t be pushed by Gabe in camp?

Woah this seems overly hostile. I’m not even a big Gabe Davis fan. I think he’s a streaky boom or bust boundary player with questionable hands. if he was a superstar in the making, I don’t think he would have been cut today. I just don’t think he’s immediately WR6 on this roster either. We forget he was good enough for WR2-4 here for his career. Have we gotten that much better with Josh Palmer and Shakir that he has no value, even when he had value behind Diggs, Beasley and John Brown/Sanders?

He wasn’t a ghost. Over the last 6 games, he had 12 catches for 256 yards and 2 TDs Paced over 17 games, that’s 34 catches, 725 yards and 6 TDs Which is basically right around his career averages. He was the same player after Brady took over. Nothing changed.

I said this and linked it. It has the 17 game pace on the link. I think you read it wrong. I didn’t say he had 745 yards in the last 6 games.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DaviGa01/gamelog/2023/#59-64-sum:stats don’t think so

Probably has something to do with being among tops in the league in ADOT. Keon was the leading Bills in ADOT last year and low and behold, 2 INTs (leading the team) when he was 7 targets higher than 4th on the roster.

Last 6 games of 2023 (including when he was hurt), he was on a 34 catches for 725 yards and 6 TD pace.

Can’t get intercepted if they never throw you the ball. You guys may be right, but I doubt McD/Beane would have had such high praise about Gabe if he was constantly screwing things up. I think there’s a really decent chance he’s on the roster. I think they will disagree with the assessment that we are better off without him. I also think they will remember last year where Coleman, Cooper and Shakir all missed time. I think they would rather have Gabe step in to start than KJ Hamler.

Mack had 3 drops per PFR with a drop% of 6. and he only got open enough to get 50 targets. Gabe has almost 1000 more yards than Mack and 14 more TD’s despite playing 38 less games than him. I don’t think that the difference between Mack and Gabe is Jerry Rice-sized but they aren’t really comparable. Gabe was good enough to get a big contract in FA. Mack Hollins is on his 6th team.