DrDawkinstein

I fully expect Vrabel to pull one over on McD and squeak out one last-minute win over some rules technicality or having his players ready for something that we arent ready for. It's still our division, but we'll likely be 5-1 after splitting with the Pats (assuming we dont bench starters the last game as well) Not sure the Jets should even be compared to the Beatles. More like Aaron Rodgers was the Wes Scantlin of the Puddle of Mudd Jets.

Not really. The agent is hired to handle negotiations and maximize the money the player earns. If a player just wanted to "get the deal done" they could handle that themselves, and likely leave millions on the table. The agent would be advising on how negotiations are going, and if they need the player to do anything to apply pressure/leverage. So far, across all the hold-ins not just Cook, there has never been a report that the player is a "negative distraction". The fans all have way bigger feelings about all this than the other players. Jimbo is there, in meetings, watching film, bonding with the team. Just not practicing.

@Sierra Foothills like...

Exactly. To @Einstein's point, one of my favotite HK moments was during the Browns season. Douglas had Gregggg Williams and Todd Haley as Coordinators, and it was OBVIOUS they both took the job just for the potential that Douglas would be fired and they would have a chance to be interim HC. Coaches meetings with those 2 just circling Douglas like a couple of sharks...

That wasnt the HK Producers asking hard hitting questions and putting them on the spot for their most recent failure. Everything you mentioned was simply sitting back and capturing it on tape and then replaying it. Which is exactly what entertainment documentaries do. Any mentions of the failures is because it is typically a bad team that is under the gun and that is their entire story line that makes them interesting. All they had were failures. Browns sucked, Bengals sucked, Miami sucked. That's the story line. They had no big-personality MVP to focus on. Also, the things you mentioned all happened at least a few episodes in. We'll see some of that same "realness" in a couple weeks once we get to cut time.

Hard Knocks is not sports journalism tho. That isnt what this show is about. Why would anyone expect Hard Knocks to roll up and start busting the balls of the HC, GM, MVP QB and focusing on their latest failure?

I like watching GetUp! in the morning, but no amount of Bills coverage could make me watch Mad Dog/Stephen A on First Take. So much yelling.

NFL going to a BYOA model. Roger is cheap!

The first episode is always the fluffy "intro" episode. While most of the audience are football fans, that isnt the only audience HBO is targeting. For the casuals, and even the non-Bills fans, the first episode is the "origin story" episode. They had to set the stage with the 4 losses of the 90s, and how Bills Mafia is the best fanbase, and Tre White's injury comeback/rejoining the team, and Josh is the MVP who just wants to win a SB, etc. So for most Bills fans it would be a boring episode. They didnt tell us anything we didnt know. It should get deeper into actual camp happenings over the next couple of weeks.

You arent wrong. When we throw a d1ldo at the Patriots its because we think they're a bunch of d1ldos and they can "go f#$% themselves". And there is even a divsional rivlary here. When random fans are throwing them on the court of WOMEN'S basketball, with no bitter rivalry, the only point is to sexually embarass/intimidate/assault the female players. It isnt even close to the same thing.

Not every guy needs to be a "leader". Cant have 53 leaders anyways. Too many Cooks in the kitchen (pun intended). The team and Offense have their leader. Josh. All they need after that is talent, and Cook has piles of it. Beane did go out of his way TWICE in the recent Catalano interview to praise Cook. Even had to catch himself going on a Cook-loving tangent when answering a question about Shakir.

He'll either sign an extension or return by week 1. There is no holding out.

Yeah, there is far less drama in the building of a well-established, successful team (credit McBeane) then with the Jets, or the 0-16 Browns, or even Jerry and the Cowboys. They'll find the cut-down drama because that is just a natural part of the pre-season. Other than that, it is basically showing the rest of the country and 31 other NFL teams what makes the Bills team and org so special. They all WISH they could be like this.

Nothing more American than "squashing" your workforce. The owners are more than welcome to try to add rules/verbiage in the next CBA, as long as they are willing to give something in return like more % of revenue. I hear what youre saying, but I'm not worried about it. We should be able to keep all of them. We have Josh and our OTs locked up. We arent paying anyone else on Offense, except our backup TE. I'd look to take some money out of Knox's $17M next year for McGovern/Torrence rather than quibble with Cook over $11M vs $13M. Look how many guys other tops teams are paying. Big QB contracts AND a top WR contract or TWO AND their OL AND Defensive stars... And the cap is jumping up $25M/yr with streaming money.

I'd expect as soon as he clears waivers

Look at all the positivity in this thread... after YEARS of hand wringing and people bashing the idea like it would be some huge distraction and detrimental to the team.

You just gotta crank it up man! After reading about the possibility of teams/players using them to mask concussions, I get the ban.

It's on HBO live, like ol fashioned TV, at 9pm. It doesnt come out on streaming (MAX) until after it airs. Either at like 10pm tonight, or tomorrow. I forget which. They get the entire 2nd episode

Man that was great. What an amazing team we have. And to land a Josh after all those years... Enjoy this time.

I hear Bills fans say "We need to get Josh more weapons! He cant do it all himself!" but then want to let our one actual weapon walk. And what better way to support your QB than with a running game that is an actual threat to take it to the house each and every play, so Safeties CANT cheat up?

50% of snaps but touches the ball more than anyone (outside of QB and Center). Since we're talking about snaps, touches, and production... Cook had 207 carries and 32 receptions. He had the ball 239 times. He accounted for 1267 yards and 18 TDs. Shakir, who just got $15M/yr, and just had his best year yet, had 78 total touches, 825 yds, and 4 TDs. Roughly 1/3 Cook's total production depending how you want to look at it. Rousseau, who just got $20M/yr is on a regular rotation. Different positions, sure. But Shakir doesnt contribute even HALF of what Cook does to the offense. So if we're justifying numbers based on snaps, touches, and productivity, Cook should be the 2nd highest paid on Offense.

Certainly not you and other level-headed posters/commenters. But I see Bills fans absolutely trashing Cook on reddit and twitter, and even some here. He made ONE comment (not post, COMMENT) on Social Media and you'd think he killed a baby at the 50 yard line. To the last line, all good. I've said before, I totally understand the general philosophy of not paying RBs. But you also wouldnt pretend Bijan or Gibbs are bad players in order to justify not paying them. A looooong time ago, right around when Beane came on board and we were discussing strategies of building a team I even said something along the lines of "the 2nd round is the sweet spot for RBs (thinking of Thurman and some others). Take a RB in the 2nd, use him for 4 years, then take another RB in the 2nd". However, that was predicated on hitting on a lot of other draft picks too. Unfortunately, with Beane's track record on 1st and 2nd round picks, they are too valuable to cycle guys out like that. If he had hit on just a couple of others (give me Justin Simmons and AJBrown/Metcalf in 2019), then I'd be more inclined to just let him walk. But we arent paying any WRs, and it doesnt look like we plan to. There arent many (any) other big threats on Offense. So might as well throw some money at the one skills position talent we do have.

WTF are you talking about? How much time did you and Jimbo spend together?

Yeah, its really unfortunate that fans got themselves so triggered over some low-key BAU negotiating. Too many posts from fans everywhere devaluing and disparaging Cook over literally nothing. I get that we're fans of the team, not individual players. But the player has done nothing out of the ordinary... except peel off long TD runs we havent seen in years.

Not performance enhancing and legal in many states. Plus, the owners used it as a bargaining chip to gain concessions of their own. No more than listening to your favorite hype song really. Like I said, I've used them a ton. Recently too.