BillsFanForever19

He tore it on 9/30/24. It will be over 11 months come Week 1. Modern medical Achilles rehabilitation in the NFL has made leaps and bounds from the old days. It used to be a Full Year or more. In recent years, we've seen guys return much quicker than that. I think it's very likely he's ready to roll Week 1. As for the signing itself, I love it. I've been saying all offseason that I was surprised we did nothing for the LB room. Especially at Middle Linebacker. It was crazy to me that they didn't even bring in so much as some competition underneath Bernard - where we only had Joe Andreeseen and Baylon Spector. Thompson missed the past two years with injuries. Before that though, he was a very good starter. A broken leg shouldn't hamper someone long term. An Achilles can, but not as much as a Torn ACL. If he can stay healthy, I think he has the potential to be a great Backup. I'd def feel more comfortable with Shaq than Buffalo Joe and especially Spector.

The Anti-Cook crew around here have to be in shambles today.

You think that they're not going to sign their Draft Picks? When has that ever happened with any team? If the season started today, Maxwell Hairston, TJ Sanders, and Deone Walker wouldn't be suiting up for us either. What's your point?

Struggling? Even with paying both WR's - they're STILL 32 Million Under the Cap this season and 69 Million Under the Cap next season? They're not "struggling" to pay their Defensive End. They simply don't want to pay their Defensive End what he wants. It's a shame they didn't spend the 17th Pick in the Draft on a quality Edge Rusher prospect like Shemar Stewart... Oh wait, they did exactly that.

I think Kenneth Davis was a more complete RB than Ray Davis is. Ray is a good change of pace back with more power than Cook. But I find it ridiculous to want Davis to start over Cook. Or that we'd be fine without Cook bc we have Davis. He's a completely different RB. He's a 4.55, 3.9 yard average guy - who's got average vision and runs kind of tight. He was brought in to replace Nyheim Hines' roster spot and the role that Zack Moss had before him. And he was pretty good last season in that Zack Moss, Frank Gore role for us. But at no point did I think "we should be playing Ray over James". Ray Davis was not Drafted in the 4th Round to be the heir apparent to James Cook. If/when James Cook leaves Buffalo, his true replacement will most likely come on Day 2 of the 2026 Draft and will be a similar style RB with speed and elusiveness.

Yeah, they lost Joe Burrow for the season in early November 2023. Injuries and a slow start derailed them early. They were one of the hottest teams in the league down the stretch. One of only a couple that I truly feared us playing. In large part bc of their Offensive firepower.

I could be. What do you think wins you more Football games? Having Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins lined up on teams CB2 with a lesser MLB or just Chase and a slightly better MLB?

Spot on interpretation of how I see things. I see the CB room (at the moment) being Benford, Hairston, Johnson, White, and Strong (technically also Codrington if he sticks as the return guy). Hancock is listed as a 'DB' on the official roster. Beane said he sees him playing all over and Hancock himself has said he's being used all over and has multiple playbooks. So he's a Nickel CB and Safety. Which of course was what Cam Lewis was for us last year. I think they see Hancock as a more talented, cheaper version of Lewis. I believe he was brought in to compete and replace Lewis on the Depth Chart, freeing up 1.75m in Cap by doing so. It's just a question of whether or not he proves ready to do so in Year 1 at both Backup Nickel and Safety. Lewis fell under the Safety depth chart as a "DB". I think that's the easiest place to slot Hancock. I think if he's ready, Lewis is gone and Hancock just slides into his spot. If he looks like he needs some time, then they keep Lewis too this year and we'll be 5 deep at Safety and 10 deep in the Secondary.

If you have the ability to have not one, but two bonafide WR1's on your roster and fit it in your salary cap (as the Bengals did) - it would be absurd not to do that. WR is a premium position. If I had one complaint about Beane, it's that he allocates too much cap to non-premium positions. Making it difficult to make big moves at premium positions. I'm jealous that Cinci is the kind of place that realizes that if it comes down to not paying a LB so that you can pay a top end WR - you do that. Um... it comes down to his market. I do believe that Middle Linebacker is the least deep position on the team and have been surprised that no one has been brought in to at least compete with Buffalo Joe and Baylon Spector. I like Joe. He exceeded expectations as a UDFA from UB. But is he someone I think we should be relying on if something were to happen to Bernard? No, I don't. If Pratt has starting options or people offering him any sort of big money (relative to what he is), than no. But if his market is one in which he's willing to take a backup gig for backup money for us - absolutely.

Cook went about it the way that multiple stars in this league go about it every single year. That doesn't make him "not a team player" and it certainly doesn't make him "Diggs". It's buisness, it happens. It's not personal. Beane is going about things the right way. You aren't getting a 2nd Round Pick for a Running Back, with one year left on his deal, who is publicly angling for big money. DK Metcalf only got a Late 2nd. You'd be lucky to get a Late 3rd. And the Draft has already happened. So there's no replacing him this season. Any trade would result in a 2026 Draft Pick and do nothing to help the team this season. So we'd be better off keeping him, even if he did hold out (which doesn't appear likely). We'll likely get more with a 2027 Compensatory Pick for using him this year and letting him walk than we would trading him.

That's a fair opinion to have. But why does that make him "not a team player" and drawing comparisons to Diggs? He's not said anything negative about the team or taken shots at Allen on Twitter (like Diggs did). He just wants to get paid. Like many players on expiring contracts do.

He's also holding Youth Football Camps in Rochester and Buffalo on 7/8 and 7/9. Absolutely insane to compare him to Diggs.

Wow. It's almost as if people who were freaking out and convinced he was going to hold out regular season games were overreacting... He also posted today that he's going to be holding Youth Football Camps in Buffalo and Rochester on 7/8 and 7/9. Which would be an odd thing to do in the backyard of the team you'd be holding out on.

If they believed he was a liability and wasn't ready, they wouldn't have spent a 1st on him. Like any young player, he's going to take his lumps and have to get up to speed with the NFL game. But he has to play to do that. Which won't happen if we sign Alexander to put alongside Benford. Boundary CB isn't a rotational spot like DL. Like we did when we Drafted Elam in Round 1, we took Strong in the 6th as insurance. And signed Tre White as vet insurance for both of them. They've got fallback plans in the event Hairston doesn't look ready. But they aren't just going to relegate him to the bench before they so much as evaluate him in the Pre-Season and Training Camp after spending a 1st on him. It's really simple, if they wanted Alexander to start (which again, he'll have to be given or he won't sign here) they'd have made the move for him and not Drafted Hairston in Round 1, on top of the other things they did. They decided not to deal for him and used the 1st on Hairston instead, when the Draft compensation for Alexander would have been much less than what we spent on Hairston. Now he's a Free Agent. Great. It doesn't change the fact that they already moved on from that idea and filled his potential spot. And on top of all of the other things, we have 2m to our name right now. We don't even have the money to sign our Draft Picks right now and need to come up with even more later to pay the Practice Squad, go from the Top 51 cap figure to 53, and have spending money for the season. Idk how you're also adding a Jaiire Alexander contract on top of that.

There's a reason for that. There's two Starters on the Boundary and one starter in the Nickel. Teams don't have legitimate star quality caliber 4th CB's bc no one like Alexander is signing to be a Backup and you don't spend a 1st Round Pick on a guy to be a Backup before you even get to Training Camp.

You have to cut them first. A 5th Round Pick (Hancock) and the #1 Pick in Round 6 (Strong) are no guarantees to be able to be brought back on the PS. I could easily see one or both scooped up if cut. Even if we were able to get them back, they could be poached at any time on the PS. You're playing with fire releasing Rookies before Late Round 6 or 7. We've never cut a player we've Drafted before Round 6 as a Rookie. I don't see any way that they Drafted both of those guys with no plan in mind and would move on from both. And again, even if I subscribed to that, that would mean we spent a 1st Round Pick on Maxwell Hairston to not really see the field unless there's an injury. Jaiire Alexander isn't signing with a team that he has to "compete" for a Starting job. We'd have to give him the starting gig or he'd sign somewhere else that would guarantee him that.

We may have tried to get him. But we obviously pivoted to spending a 1st Round Pick on Maxwell Hairston and signing Tre White as veteran insurance (not to mention also Drafting Dorian Strong and Jordan Hancock, who may or may not fall under the Safety Depth chart). I think the ship has sailed on whatever our interest in Alexander was. The CB room is crowded now as is. To bring him in would mean Maxwell Hairston would be playing the Kaiir Elam role of 3rd Outside CB that doesn't really see the field outside of injury (and may be a healthy scratch like Elam was for his lack of Special Teams). On top of that, with Benford, Alexander, Hairston, and Taron as locks - that would leave 1 spot (maybe 2) for all of Tre White, Dorian Strong, Ja'Marcus Ingram, and Dane Jackson. Possibly even Jordan Hancock if they decide he's only a Nickel CB.

Yes.

It's funny to me how you're always talking about not wanting to hear about it anymore - yet you're in every James Cook post losing your mind on a daily basis over him and it. Like if it bothers you so much and you hate hearing about it, why do you go out of your way to completely immerse yourself in it? Why do you keep the discourse going? It's really not that big of a deal. It's not effecting the team like you think it is. It's certainly not effecting Beane. Your idea of kicking him to the curb now is a no benefit, all detriment situation. Your discrediting the value of him in our Offense last season and his potential value on the field this season is insane. And your overvaluation of an exclusively Ray Davis & Ty Johnson backfield is even more insane. That would be a huge downgrade and it boggles my mind that you'd rather field a worse Offense this year out of principal or spite.

I'm not convinced that even if we had one of those guys that Beane and McDermott would play them that way. They both came from "RB Committee" central in Carolina. And they've brought that with them. I don't think they subscribe to the "3 Down RB" theory. They've been bringing in different styles of Backs, utilized in different ways, with a specific 3rd Down RB from Day 1. If we uncovered a Derrick Henry style RB, I'd bet they still wouldn't utilize him as an every down RB. They'd probably still take him off the field for someone else depending on situations and to keep him from taking too much damage.

You should look at the little notification above your post. The title of the post was simply "Terron Armstead retires" before OP changed it. And no, I didn't. I just saw the post and thought, "didn't this happen a while ago"? I don't know how clicking on the post or not matters - in the context of the original title I was replying to.

... neither?

This isn't current news. He retired months ago. https://www.nfl.com/news/dolphins-five-time-pro-bowl-lt-terron-armstead-retiring-after-12-nfl-seasons

It will be more than 11m. Josh Jacobs makes 12. Alvin Kamara turns 30 in a month and he makes 12.5. Derrick Henry is only making 15m bc he'll be 32 years old in the Playoffs this season and has had recurring foot problems. Otherwise he'd be making closer to the 21m Saquon Barkley makes. And that's not taking into account the yearly rise in salary cap that results in the yearly rise in salary's. I assure you, James Cook whether it's here or elsewhere, will be signing for more than 11m per.