DrDawkinstein

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.

I didnt move any goal posts. I'm just trying to define your vague, open-ended goal posts. Saying our extensions affected us "very negatively" with no further explanation or examples leaves a lot open to interpretation. So I dont hurt your feelings more, let me re-phrase. Which extensions hurt our ability to win? No one could predict White's injury, and he was an All-Pro before that. Knox isnt a huge number now, and wasnt even a big number then. Diggs isnt necessarily part of this conversation since it mainly centers around extending guys off their rookie deal and he came to us already on his 2nd contract and made the All-NFL team as we were extending him again. His meltdown was mostly centered around Dorsey and McD holding the team back, and he wasnt wrong, so... 🤷‍♂️ Extending players who prove themselves on their rookie contract is foundational to well-run organizations. It not only keeps homegrown talent, usually at a discount. It also shows players all around the league that we are willing to take care of our players and do business right, which makes more FAs want to join the team. It is absolutely the best way to do it, when the player deserves it. But it's not the only way we operate, as Beane proved with Tremaine Edmunds. And we didnt even re-sign Epenesa until the tampering period had started. There will always be some misfires. No one is 100%. No one. But way more often then not, signing rookies whose play has been proven to early extensions is the right way to do it.

Very negatively? I need examples of which extensions crippled this team from winning. Josh would have great numbers, like he already does. The Defense would still let us down tho.

Classic Mike Brown pulling the worst move possible. Good luck to Tee, Joe, and the fans.

Yeah, I'd think after following Carr to the Raiders and then falling apart, and then following Rodgers to the Jets and that falling apart, he'd be over following QBs he knows and be more focused on finding a good organization. And the Bills would fit that. And what WR wouldnt want to come play with Josh? But trying to predict WR behavior and decision making... good luck! End of the day, he most likely follows the money.

Michigan had one on Prime as well.

Am I the only one that thinks Cam Ward is being vastly over-rated? This QB class feels like 2013 all over again, but I guess the difference is the teams at the top are more in need of a QB than they were in 2013?

Sure, that too. As others have mentioned, we have to bring almost 100 guys into camp. And teams usually stock up on TEs, RBs, DBs, and OL as camp fodder. So I'm sure we'll bring a couple more in. I like your UDFA idea because I just dont want to waste real draft picks on addressing our #3 TE.

2 DTs 2 DEs 2 CBs 1 Safety 1 WR Done. No need to waste picks on RB (we still have Gore on the PS) or even TE. He re-signed last year at $985k. We should be able to bring him back around there. Anything less than $1.5M is a no-brainer and save those draft assets for where we need them because we arent going to get DEs or DTs at that rate.

aka following Rodgers to the Giants. Pretty much the same thing with the way it's going in New Jersey.

Or just bring him back for less than $3M, which is most likely what will happen. Not worth wasting a draft pick when we can just bring him back for less than $3M, but still at a number which is more than any of us will make next year. I agree I think they'll get something done. For what he'll get paid anywhere else, he's best off in Buffalo being a part of Josh's offense.