BillsFanForever19

Stop comparing Cook to Diggs. Diggs posted things that were shots at the team and Josh - to force his way out of a situation he didn't want to be in. James Cook is trying to get paid. These are not the same situations. Every single year, multiple players do the Social Media thing when their contract negotiations are happening. A lot of the time, they end up re-sigining and all is fine. Look at Brandon Aiyuk with the 49ers last season, as an example. It's just the way it is for young athletes in today's social media society. It's extemely common. I don't understand why fans like you take it as such an offense. For every "diva", there's probably two or three more that would do the same thing if their contract negotiations had gone poorly.

There was no bigger cheerleader for Xavier Legette pre-Draft than me. But if you're someone who feels underwhelmed by Keon Coleman - whoooo boy! Legette was worse. Not just statistically, but with many really bad critical drops. He has even more to prove than Coleman does. https://www.catscratchreader.com/2025/1/23/24350011/the-curious-case-of-xavier-legette

Sure, he can take Micah's spot on the Practice Squad and play the same amount. Edit: The Ravens won't need to cut him. He's a Free Agent. They traded a 6th Round Pick to the Rams for White and a 7th - on a 1 year contract that elapsed at the end of this past season. That said, my original point stands. The guys toast. He was getting beat by Keon Coleman and was moved on by the Rams on his 'prove it deal' with them - after being torched time and again by speed WR's.

Tee Higgins is talked about all the time. Just like he was last year.... before he was tagged. Joe Burrow is pushing hard to keep him. Like last year, they're in good shape cap wise. I'll believe he's actually available when there's no extension before Free Agency and they don't Franchise Tag him again by the deadline.

Huh? He missed almost two years of Football. He came back and started to look more like himself. But didn't fully look like his old self. He'd have extremely little trade value. Then there's the cap ramifications. Making his trade value even less. And the massive Dead Cap hit we'd take. It makes pretty much no sense, any way you slice it.

That's where i'm at, for the most part. We're too perennially strapped and have too many pressing needs to be paying tippy top dollar for a RB. If he plays hardball and refuses to come down - i'd have to reluctantly say goodbye. I do disagree though that he'll be "so easy to replace". James Cook isn't just another RB. We've spent the entire Beane regime Drafting RB's on Day 2, signing Free Agents, trading for Hines, etc. No one has come close to the kind of weapon James Cook is. Ray Davis and Ty Johnson aren't giving you that kind of vision, speed, elusiveness, and shiftiness in between tackles. He's not just a guy running behind a good Offensive Line. And you'd be hard pressed to get the same kind of Running Back he's become by just Drafting another guy. Far more likely you'd just be Drafting another Devin Singletary than you would a James Cook.

You're not wrong that production matters. But what matters just as much if not more is age, an ascending ceiling (Cook has gotten better every year), and wear and tear. As you said, he's used sparingly with us. Which results in less wear and tear. And when it comes to a player looking for a contract, they price themselves at their production per usage. He's not going to price himself lower bc the team he plays for utilizes him less. Using Barkley and Henry as examples - Barkley is 3 years older and Henry is 6 years older. Barkley has had ACL reconstruction and Henry has had recurring foot issues. Cook has none of those. And with each year generally comes a rise in the salary cap, which results in a rise in salary. That's why every year, there's a new top contract being handed out for a new position. And a new contract where people laugh and think they're overpaid. All that said, i'm not saying *we* should pay him 15. But him asking for 15 isn't as insane as you'd think. If he hit the market, there's probably a team who would pay him that or close to it.

Exactly. There's been no buzz about Miami being open to moving Waddle. Even if there were - they wouldn't want to move him in the Division and we wouldn't want to move Cook within the Division.

Two things can be true: 1.) James Cook is totally justified for trying to maximize his value. 2.) We shouldn't pay what his perceived max value is. He has 100% outplayed his Rookie contract and he's on the last year of it. The next contract is his first chance to cash in and with the position he plays, could possibly be his last - you never know. He's making 5.6m this year and if he were to get injured this year, it would greatly effect his ability to cash in. Maybe ever. On one hand, the 15m asking point seems crazy. On the other - he's 25 years old, a 2 time Pro Bowler, who has gotten better with each year and could continue to ascend, and hasn't suffered any major injuries. Saquon is 28, Derrick Henry is 31, and both have a lot less tread on their tires. Saquon has had ACL reconstruction and Derrick Henry has had recurring foot problems. These are things that factor into contracts just as much if not more than "he's better on the field". Then you take into account the rise in salary's with the rise in the salary cap on a yearly basis and yeah, 15 isn't absolutely insane. That said - would I give him a contract that large? Probably not. And i'm guessing Beane is probably of the same mind. Which is most likely why we're in the situation we're in. Either Beane has been not talking contract with his agent or his number is further away from Cook and Cook's agents number and it's upset him. Where I take issue is the idea that what he's doing makes him "a cancer". It's the offseason. It's business time. You can play hardball in business and still be a consumate professional in the locker room. No one has ever said anything negatively about how Cook handles himself in the locker room, practice, and the football field. On the contrary, Sean McDermott raved about him recently in a way you don't often hear from him: People are comparing him with Stefon Diggs. There's a major difference between what Diggs did and what Cook is doing. Cook is just upset over money. He wants the Bills to pay him before he hits Free Agency. Diggs was taking pot shots at the team and Josh Allen and was trying to get himself off of the team. There are just as many instances of players taking their displeasure with the negotiations with their team publicly that have worked it out, stayed, and not been an issue after that. Business is seperate. I don't fault Cook for doing what he's doing and I don't think it makes him immature or a cancer. What he's doing is normal in today's day and age of Social Media and NFL negotiations. But, again, if he doesn't come down at least a little bit from that price - I think i'd sadly have to consider moving him. 12-13 would be my max price.

What are you getting at here?

Did I say that his social media means nothing? No. Obviously, if he was liking what he was hearing and felt comfortable with things - he wouldn't be doing that. And how do you know he hasn't met with the team or negotiated with them? That's an assumption. And if I were going to make an assumption here, it would be that the number he and his agent are hearing aren't close to his liking. Thus the public grievance of saying "15 mill year". "Incredibly self-absorbed or an idiot"? Jesus. Overreaction much?

Objectively, the worst Bills player of all time is probably a player who was the 53rd man on the roster in a given year and never saw the field to show how bad he was.

There's a lot of cranky old people on this board who just don't understand the times. They see what has become standard operating procedure in today's day and age for high profile players who are upset with their negotiations as an insult to them personally, a sign of immaturity, and a mark on their character. That's not what it is. Every single year, you'll see a handful or more of players doing this when their negotiations aren't going well or they're unhappy with their situation. Like I said, it's become standard operating procedure. Back in the day, they'd leak things to the press. Nowadays, they don't have to. Social media changed everything. My favorites are the ones that like to compare an NFL player to themselves and say like "if I did something like this at my job - i'd be fired". Like it's remotely comparable 😄

The 90's kid in me popped for this tweet. Never noticed the correlation.

True - but liquid cash in a contract still effects the Salary Cap. You can't say "i'm signing you to a 4 year contract with a 1m cap hit annually, but paying you 14m in cash".

Correct. But if the dialogue between he and his agent were going swimmingly in Cook and/or Cook's agents view, he wouldn't be doing these things on Social Media. I said the same thing about Stefon Diggs last season...

He's a Middle Linebacker. Are you putting Terrel Bernard on the bench? No. Are you trading for a Starter and taking on an 8m cap hit to make the guy your backup? No. There's a ton of things we have to do this offseason. A starting Linebacker isn't one of them.

This is where I reach a breaking point when it comes to the RB conversation. Everyone likes to say "RB's are a dime a dozen". RB's like James Cook are NOT a dime a dozen. We've spent the entire Beane regime signing RB's, trading for RB's, and Drafting RB's with Day 2 picks. And no one we've brought in has come close to what James Cook brings to the table. We would not have gotten to the point we did with other RB's. He has a combination of speed, vision, elusiveness, and difficulty to take down that you are going to be very hard pressed replacing by just Drafting another RB. All that said though, 15m is too much to ask.

Frank Gore Jr. chimes in with "U deserve it". Jonathan Taylor makes 14m per and Saquon Barkley makes 12.5m per. 15 is a wild ask. I hope we aren't setting up for an offseason holdout. Update:

Feels like putting a 2nd Round Pick into a Safety last season and then signing the most expensive Safety on the market this season is a lot of resources put into that position group. But if they feel Cole Bishop needs another year after missing Training Camp last season (and looking overwhelmed as a Rookie) and the plan is to move on from Taylor Rapp after this year and have Cole Bishop replace him then - it could make some sense. We do need a replacement and upgrade from Damar Hamlin. Though Holland would be a lot of money and I'd definitely be prioritizing the starting replacements at WR and CB and upgrades at DE and 1T DT first.

Oh, trust me, like I said in the OP - I'd prefer something more than Hollywood Brown. If it were up to me, calling around about a Trade for a True #1 WR and then going all in on Tee Higgins (if he wasn't franchised) if the calls around got us nowhere would be my first priority. I'm just saying that if it is true that there's interest in Hollywood - it could be that they're looking at cheaper options than even Amari Cooper bc they plan on their big spending going elsewhere. Even if we did tab Hollywood for Cooper's roster spot - I'd want us to carry 6 WR's this year and Draft a WR somewhere as further insurance.

Quality of WR overall, i'd agree with you that Hollywood Brown is not an upgrade from Amari Cooper. But he is a different type of WR than Cooper and has a skillset that we're missing that Cooper doesn't possess in speed. More importantly than that though, he will be cheaper than Amari Cooper. And if they choose to focus on Defense with a big move like Myles Garrett, as well as finding replacements for Rasul Douglas, Daquan Jones, and Damar Hamlin - retaining Amari Cooper (along with Mack Hollins) may be out of our price range.

Courtland Sutton isn't a Free Agent.