BillsFanForever19

I'm not saying Douglas and Henry are the same caliber of player. The difference between Douglas hitting the wall and Henry hitting the wall is that Douglas doing so equates to being completely toast and out of the league - wherein Henry losing a step would still have him as a servicable RB. But your argument is he'll still be the force he was last year for up to two years. I think that's a pretty big gamble to take. He definitely doesn't have to "get comfy with 12m at the max". If Josh Jacobs is at 12m and 29 year old Alvin Kamara is at 12.5 - he will easily surpass that. Derrick Henry will be 32 in the Playoffs this season. That's why he's making 15m instead of 21m like Barkley. You know that there's much more that goes into contract value than stats and performance. If Cook hits the market next offseason after another season like last year, I would bet you Dollars to Donuts he's exceeding 12m and probably by more than a couple million.

Exactly. Take Rasul Douglas for example. He went from a pretty solid starter for us in 2023 to completely toast in 2024 (and currently out of the league) seemingly overnight. The 30's come at you fast in the NFL.

He'll be 32 when they're in the Playoffs this season. While I agree it's probably likely he'll still be a force this season, I don't agree that there's often signs the previous year before players hit the wall. Players seemingly hit the wall out of nowhere more often than not. Especially at RB and especially when you get years into the 30's. Again, I wouldn't bet money on that happening this season. But I wouldn't bet money against it either. And I certainly wouldn't say with any kind of certainty he has another 2 full years and at 33 he'll still be going as strong as last season.

While i'll give you that was probably his best play of the year, I wouldn't say him making that play at our own 40 with 9 minutes left in the game and with a 5 point lead "won us the Ravens playoff game". It was one of a number of plays made by a number of people that allowed us the victory. You could just as easily say "Damar Hamlin's sack and strip and Von Miller's recovery and return won us the Ravens playoff game". It doesn't make either worthy of a big contract extension. And it doesn't negate Bernard's average to below average play on the field the rest of the year.

What would you have had us do differently though? Who was traded or available in FA on Defense that would have been significantly better - while still being able to address all the holes we had? We don't need the young players to be great in Year 1 or Year 2. We need them to be better than guys who were a dumpster fire last season. It's really not a big ask. And for each guy you're questioning, there's at least some moderate veteran insurance that can bring at least the quality of guys we're replacing from last season. Worried about Bishop? Well we still have Hamlin to fall back on. And we brought in Darrick Forrest (who has starting experience) as well as Drafted Jordan Hancock. Worried about Hairston? We signed Tre White and Dane Jackson as vet insurance and also Drafted Dorian Strong as double down Rookie insurance like in 2022. We had 7 guys leave the Defense. Between FA and the Draft, we've brought in 13 new players to replace them and to upgrade depth from some guys who are still here. We've kept everyone of value last year. Again, given the money we had to play with and where we were Drafting - I think he did a phenomenal job. I can't imagine looking at all the work he put into the Defense and thinking "we're cooked". WR is a different story 😛

"Basham never got there. Elam never got there."? For every Elam and Basham, there's been a Josh Allen, Tre White, Christian Benford, Taron Johnson, Matt Milano, Greg Rousseau, Tremaine Edmunds, Dion Dawkins, Ed Oliver, James Cook, Khalil Shakir, Spencer Brown, Terrel Bernard, or O'Cyrus Torrence who have stepped into a starting role in Year 1 or Year 2 (like Bishop) and been solid to much more than that. That's not to say that our Year 1 or Year 2 players will all definitively be stars right out of the gate. But to point to just guys like Basham and Elam (I'll give you Ford too) and ignore all the successes is really looking at the glass (less than) half empty. Again, I go back to my original point. We're bringing back everyone on the roster from last year's Defense - except for Rasul Douglas, Von Miller, Dawuane Smoot, Kaiir Elam, Austin Johnson, Quintin Jefferson, and Jordan Phillips. Those guys were so bad that two weeks after the Draft, every single one of them (save for Elam who was traded for peanuts) is currently not on an NFL Roster. Do you really think that Joey Bosa, Maxwell Hairston, Tre White, T.J. Sanders, Michael Hoecht, Landon Jackson, Larry Ogunjobi, and Deone Walker aren't going to be able to fill the shoes of that murderer's row list above? They'd have to work hard at being bad to not be an upgrade over those guys. Given where we were at Cap wise and where we were picking in the Draft, I think Beane has done a masterful job of rebuilding this Defense.

Of the 8 Free Agents we didn't bring back, only Hollins and Morris have found new homes thus far. Amari Cooper, Rasul Douglas, Dawuane Smoot, Austin Johnson, Quintin Jefferson, and Jordan Phillips still floating out there. So is Von Miller (cut).

He's a die hard Dallas Cowboys fan. So "Go Josh Allen" was as far as he was willing to go. Still cool that he likes Josh enough to do something like that.

If you're talking as far as deleting a contract, to me, it's Bernard. He was easily the last of the big 5 to extend in my opinion, even knowing that retaining all 5 was unlikely. He had a very good 2023 but took a noticeable step back in 2024. He seemed to always be out of position. The middle of the field was constantly open in the passing game and for deep runs beyond the line of scrimmage. In 2023, he was popping off the screen quite a bit. In 2024, he was barely noticeable. On top of that, he's shown a penchant for getting dinged up fairly frequently. It's often said that the premium positions in Football are QB, WR, LT, DE, and CB. MLB, like RB, isn't one of those positions. It's also not the kind of position that requires a ton of money or a premium Draft resource to replace. And when it comes down to who the bigger playmaker at their non premium position is and who had more of an impact on victory for us last season, it's easily Cook. From what I saw from Bernard in 2024, I would have waited on paying him this offseason. I wouldn't have been closed off to the idea of paying him in 2026, depending on how he looked this year. But I wouldn't have paid him now as we did.

Is that Cook's asking price? Just bc his brother shot out a tweet doesn't make that his official price. He knows and James knows, he's probably not getting that. But throw out 20 and 15 looks like a compromise.

That may be. But again, there is likely other teams that will take less pass protection from the RB position for another playmaker on the field. This idea that you absolutely can't have him on the field on 3rd Downs bc that's what the Bills do isn't accurate. Not every team stresses as much on blocking players as we do. Not every team runs the same offensive scheme. Also, I don't think not being a good pass blocker is an equivalent to being 31 going on 32 with recurring foot issues when it comes to negatively effecting money. The latter definitely outweighs the former.

The Week 7 Bye works really well with our suspensions. Gives Hoecht and Ogunjobi multiple weeks to get ready.

Yes, but Barkley is a 21m per year RB. Henry is only at 15m per because he'll be 32 by the end of this season and has had recurring foot problems. If he had Cook's clean bill of health, tread left on the tires, and was 25 years old - he'd surpass Barkley's 21m per year. Of course he's not 21m. But he's not asking for that. This idea that he's a definitively a 2 Down RB to every team in the NFL and that he's not worth 15m bc Henry is a better RB is severely flawed. It assumes every team in the NFL views and utilizes all players the same way and ignores the effect of Henry's age and wear and tear on his contract value.

You act as if we've lost a ton since last season and are starting Rookies across the board to replace big time contributors. The reality is we're relying on Bosa (as well as Hoecht and Ogunjobi after Week 6) and Rookies to provide more than Von Miller, Rasul Douglas, Dawuane Smoot, Austin Johnson, Quinton Jefferson, and Jordan Phillips. That's who we lost and that's who they're replacing. Considering the performance of those players last season, that's not a big ask and the talent level is much higher with the replacements.

He's not used as a 3 down back *here*. That doesn't mean every team in the NFL will play him the same way. Every talking head and most fans of other NFL teams alike posed the question multiple times all year "why did they take Cook off the field"? Specifically after we lost to the Chiefs. Even as a Bills fan, i've often questioned taking our best offensive weapon off the field for a better blocker. Not every team in the league is going to value pass pro from their RB as much as we do. There will be teams that will take less in pass pro to put another weapon on the field. Or teams that will put him on the field in favor of another weapon and put an added blocker in their place. Just because he's used as a 2 Down Back here doesn't mean he's definitively a 2 Down Back for every team in the NFL and will be paid as a 2 Down Back by every team in the NFL. Every year we see players sign on to new teams with an increased role from how their previous team viewed them and are paid more for it. Take Josh Palmer this year with us for example.

Performance to date isn't the only thing that matters when it comes to contract. Often times, it's not even the most important thing. Age, injury history, and envisioned increased role from signing team from original team (ie there will be teams that view Cook as a 3 Down Back) play into money just as much and more all things considered. If Henry were Cook's age and had Cook's clean bill of health, he'd be surpassing Barkley's price of 21m per. I've said it once, i'll say it a million times. it's fair to say you personally wouldn't pay a RB what Cook is going to get in the open market. But it's ridiculous for people to simply point at one thing or another in a vacuum to argue he's worth less. If many of you get your wish and he ends up signing elsewhere, it's not going to be anywhere near what some of you argue his market value is.

I was in the camp that we should have moved on from him. But I feel like if they felt the same way, they'd have worked harder early in Free Agency or higher in the Draft to sign and/or Draft a big time 1T. I think the plan is to rotate Jones more and keep him fresh. Move Sanders over there on obvious passing downs to rush alongside Oliver. But I really don't see much of a chance that they're going to hand the position over to a Round 4 Rookie coming off of a bad back and DeWayne Carter, who would be transitioning to 1T and honestly looked worse than Jones to end last season. Exactly this. They extended Rousseau long term with an 80m deal. They paid Bosa 12.5m for 2025. They signed Hoecht to a long term deal for 21m. They Drafted Landon Jackson with Pick 72. You don't do all of that and then Trade a Day 2 Pick and pay a 9 figure contract to a guy to put over top of all of that.

We keep at least 5 at each DE and DT. At times, we've kept 6 at each. We had 6 in 2023 at DE and we ended last season with 6 at DT (Oliver, Jones, Johnson, Carter, Jefferson, Phillips). It's fairly common for us to have 11 on the DL. With Hoecht and Ogunjobi suspended, we actually aren't that crowded at all. We're at the minimum we keep for each position at 10 total with Groot, Bosa, AJE, Jackson, and Solomon at DE and Oliver, Jones, Sanders, Walker, and Carter at DT. If we trade AJE and/or Jones before Week 7, we're not only not crowded - we're shorthanded. Especially with how often we rotate. A single injury would put us in a tough spot. It wouldn't be unheard of to keep 12 along the DL when Hoecht and Ogunjobi return. And there will surely be injuries in the first 6 weeks that could make room for them. Maybe even along the DL. I don't think either will be cut or traded. If that does happen, I don't see it happening before Week 7. I don't see the team leaving themselves possibly short handed or making room for Ogunjobi and Hoecht before they have them. And I don't think they should. Keep the DL as deep as you can to the point where we're rotating in a quality player at all times.

We're like only 2 months removed from the Myles Garrett situation of a "fractured relationship". No relationship is fractured when it comes to money. If the Bengals change course and give him what he wants, he'll sign and it will all be water under the bridge.

It's funny how when there's someone who wants a new contract and doesn't get it - everyone thinks they're going to hold out into the season. Of all the unhappy players who wanted new contracts last season, there was only one player in the entire league who sat out games. Haason Reddick. And that was less about the contract and more about not wanting to play for the Jets after being traded there. When push comes to shove - players hardly ever give up game checks and pay fines on top of it.

Cue the usual suspects saying trade this and that and this and that and backload the contract and create a Madden rotation at DE.

There's a number of issues with this train of thought. We only keep 3 RB's on the 53. Between Cook, Davis, and Johnson - that's the 3. None of them are being cut. So whomever you Drafted would have to be cut. If you take someone in the 4th, you're most likely not getting them back on the Practice Squad if you cut them. You're playing with fire cutting anyone before Round 6. Even if you could get them back then, they could and most likely would be poached at some point during the season. You don't put that kind of investment into a player you're not going to roster. On top of that, you're wasting 1 of your 4 years you have the guy under contract. There was no need or reason to do it now. We have our RB's this year. Whether you Draft a guy this year and play him next year or Draft a guy next year to play then, it makes no difference. We'd have been wasting a pick unless we moved on from one of Cook, Davis, or Johnson and that's not something they were going to do. You worry about replacing Cook next year, if you have to. And preferably with a Draft prospect (or veteran) with a greater pedigree than you're going to find with a mid to late 4th Round Pick.

He made a fortune in Canadian endorsements. I remember being a kid visiting Toronto and I couldn't go down the street without seeing Doug Flutie on something.

They definitely will bring in someone with speed and elusiveness to replace Cook, if they don't bring him back. I see no scenario where they just roll with Davis and Ty and a similar RB. Part of the strength of running a RB committee offense is having different types of Backs for different situations.

I don't really see a scenario where we don't bring him back and Ray and Ty are our RB1-2. Save for Ray Davis somehow becoming like Derrick Henry in Year 2 or something. Which seems pretty unlikely at 26 years old and given the pedigree he had coming into the league. I see people say all the time that Ray Davis was Drafted as James Cook's successor. I don't believe that to be true. He was Drafted to replace the role and roster spot previously held by Nyheim Hines and Zack Moss before him. If Cook isn't retained, his true replacement will most likely be Drafted in the first 3 Rounds of the 2026 Draft or possibly be a signed or traded for veteran. And that player will be more in line with the type of RB that James Cook is - which is a very different back than Ray Davis is.