DrDawkinstein

Retiring would be horrible for the Bills as that immediately escalates all owed/dead money into our cap. It does NOT wipe his money off the books. Rather, the opposite. He needs to take a big pay cut first, sign a new deal, and then can retire if he wants to. I was confused when I read "collect underpants", and then even worse when you mentioned "squeezing the juice out of him"...

Great post. Zooming in on this part, the way I read these signing updates is: It's 4/$50M if he continues to play at a high level, and in that case even $12.5M/yr is a steal. or It's 4/$25M if he stinks and we have to release him, as the guarantees are the only parts that play into dead money. And in that case, $6M/yr isnt much at all in the grand scheme of things.

No one asked that. We all know why he is the whipping boy no matter what side we're on. He made a couple of social media posts, and some fans are really fired up about that. Yikes. Totally different convo is whether folks believe it affects negotiations between the FO and his agent. Which it doesnt. Beane has his number. He isnt changing it because of some social media posts.

No, Beane DOESNT CARE. He was asked his opinion and gave his general stance that he would "prefer not to" which is literally what anyone and everyone would say. But it doesnt affect anything. As evidenced by him turning around and doing the same thing. Boo hoo hoo to the fanbase who are in their bag of feelings. Build a bridge and get over it. We should all have other things to be concerned with in our lives.

When asked directly about it, Beane answered, completely unsurprisingly, that he would prefer not to. Like anhyone would say. But that doesnt mean it actually affects anything at all. He just answered the question. Even behind closed doors he isnt saying "Well we offered him $14M/yr but now that he posted 3 emojis call his agent and tell him we're changing it to $12M/yr!" And Beane saying $15M was nowhere near what he had in mind is BEANE negotiating through the media. So both sides are "guilty". But it doesnt really matter. Any difficulty in getting a deal done and being far apart in numbers would exist whether Jimbo posts on social media or not.

Luckily my feelings, your feelings, and anyone else here's feelings dont matter one bit.

You guys spend a lot of time on social media, huh?

Literally no one in the FO cares about this. Nor does it change the offers at all. I'm sure by now Beane has made his offer to Cook's camp. There is not a lot of back and forth in early extensions because the team does not want to negotiate against itself. They typically make an offer, and unless the player's camp comes back with a change in their starting number, won't keep making new offers. The only folks that care about social media are fans (aka grown ass men with apparently nothing else to do).

The more signings Beane gets done, the more pressure it puts on Cook's camp. "Hey, we're paying players left and right. But we're about to be out of money. So first ones to sign their offers win. Here's a pen."

He hasnt been a whipping boy in YEARS. The current one is Cook. Agreed on the rest.

And mind you, he did this MULTIPLE times this season. Multiple runs of 45+ yards that he took to the house. We havent had a playmaker/gamechanger like that at the RB position in decades. Can change the entire game on one play, one run. Additionally, a big change this year as he has aged/grown/built up into an NFL player, he is running through contact more. As a matter of fact, he had a few TDs this year where he ran into and through contact and plowed his way into the endzone all on his own. Agreed he's our best Offensive weapon after Josh. Keep him here, keep him happy. You guys keep saying this. His social media posts do not matter at all. AT ALL. Beane and the FO do not care that he posted 3 emojis this week. Only sensitive fans do.

I'm adding the sacks and TFLs because we already have Josh and an offense that can score 30+ every game.

How can Beane kick the tires when he's ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!

It not only pisses off the players, but more importantly, their agents. Remember Eugene Parker and how he prevented the Bills from signing a number of players, and made negotiations difficult with a handful of our good players. It just isnt good business. And being known as a team that uses the tag opens up the player/agent side to at least consider a team is not negotiating in good faith.

Gotta go back to the beginning of this convo on the previous page. We were talking about using the Franchise Tag and how that pisses off players.

To the bold, fair enough. Agree there. If it's talent you must keep and cant do it any other way, at the end of the day I am a BILLS fan not a <insert players name here> fan. To the rest, I dont care about social media and neither do the teams. The latest I saw in this thread is he posted 3 emojis, and that has a bunch of folks with their panties in a bunch. 3 emojis. ok. No the topic was about the culture and good graces the FO has built in the past 7-8 years by operating in fairness to the players. No one says give them everything they demand. But also, dont be a bunch of Mike Browns either.

He is publicly asking for $15M. One could assume that is just his/his agent's starting point (always start high) and there may be some wiggle room to come down. But even if we take it at face value and assume he is locked in to $15M/yr... I dont get the logic of using a tag, pissing him off, bringing in the bad optics to the FO, upsetting the locker room, and then still having to pay him $14M, or even worse in your numbers $15-$18M anyways. The current RB franchise tag is $13.6M. For $1.4M just get it done. Keep everyone happy and keep the good karma going. All that said, I do think we can get it done in the $12M range. Fingers crossed. Go Bills

He'll be battling Epenesa for the #3DE spot behind Garret and Rousseau.

Beane using the tag on any player, even Cook, undermines all the work he and McD have done to create a culture where players want to be. Players HATE the tag. HATE it. It's really a slap in the face. Also, the tag amount is pretty much his $15M he is starting his negotiations at that all the fans hate. Using the tag will end up costing the Bills a ton in goodwill, and also cost more cap space than just extending him now for something between $12M-15M Extend him now for 3/$40M with $25M guaranteed. Then, depending on how we structure it, we get him for something like: $5.7M, $12.5M, $13.5M = $31.7M (plus still have him for another year in his prime (at $14M), PLUS just showed all our other players and FAs that we take care of our players)

Not sure about that. The philosophy has been to not give big money to guys that dont deserve it. Edmunds, Singletary, trade Moss while they could. It just so happened a couple of those guys were RBs. And Singletary and Moss are no where near the player that Cook is.

"But the Bills cant pay Allen AND Cook AND build a defense!" (3/$51M btw)

Jalen Hurts signed a bigger contract than Josh, and the Eagles just did this. That is reality too.

I'll say Sanders is at least an interesting storyline to watch. Especially if he goes to Vegas or even the Giants.

Good for Ty. Next man up when we have a Josh, one of the best OLs, and Joe Brady returning. Get a UDFA. Or another FA to make into a star like we just did for Ty. And Ty knows what it's like on other teams that arent managed as well and who dont have a Josh. He'll want to stay too.