DrDawkinstein

McD was wrong. Again. That doesnt reflect well on McD.

Josh is very supportive and a bit hyperbolic in his praise of his team mates. And Johnson is likely our best 3rd down back. But it doesnt matter when Cook keeps us out of 3rd downs. Another botch-job by the coaches. Sounds like they should have used Cook so Josh didnt break his hand. Doesnt matter.

Here are our last 3 drives. It's clear the coaches had our best player on the bench. It's also clear it doesnt matter that Cook is a "2-down back" since when he does get the ball on early downs, we never get to 3rd down... Drive 1: Good comparison for everyone who still talks about Cook's old fumbles and drops and thinks Davis is going to step right in to replace him... Drive 2. Another good comparison for everyone who thinks Johnson is such a better 3rd down/receiving threat. Drive 3. Last drive of the game, Bills get the ball with 4minutes left. Coaches panic and meltdown in KC, AGAIN. Forcing passing plays when the run game was working. And we just needed a FG to stay in it.

I've mentioned it numerous times in this thread and others. That is strictly on the coaches making yet another bad decision in KC. Why wasnt Cook on the field? You think he held himself out? Cook was their best personnel. He had the best game out of anyone on Offense. Him not being out there was a clear mistake made by coaches. He should have been out there in crunch time. Take it up with McD. Or better yet, pay him so it forces McD out of making these same dumb mistakes. Spotrac market value is like Zillow market value for homes, and they clearly state they have a +/- of 30% (which is a huge swing!).

I mean, we all pay for it one way or another. At least this is more transparent and direct.

This entire 2-down/3-down back argument is the fanbase grasping at straws to try to devalue him after being offended by some innocuous posts on social media Doesnt make any sense for anyone who has watched him play, saw his performance last year, and still wants to comment on what he brings. Like I pointed out up-thread, he was still the most productive/used player outside of Josh. No one else comes close to his number of touches. Regardless of what downs they came on.

Yall talk like Cook went on some rant and aggressively attacked the team and called out Beane, or publicly asked for a trade, or called out he was denied a meeting with the owner... He posted a COMMENT deep, deep on someone else's post that was already talking about players getting paid of simply "15 mil year". That's it! Not even 3 full words! After that, he posted 3 emoji reactions to the news of Barkley's new contract. That's it. He also posted "Love you Buffalo" (sincerely) Most recently he posted a pic of him and Josh together. Petulant child?

Wonder how much dead money Bill is on the hook for...

I think theres a bit of correlation=/= causation here. All your points dont add up to an indictment of the RB position as much as they are knocks on individual situations or team problems. Mixon is old, Cook is not. Taylor is often injured because Indy has nothing else on offense, and no QB (let alone the league MVP). Pittsburgh is a team in flux who looks to be actively setting up their first tank ever. All of them had far more on their shoulders and took a much larger brunt of carrying the offense and being ran into the ground. The argument posters make about Cook only getting 50% of the snaps is a feature of our Offense and Team, not a bug/issue. It will only serve to keep him fresh and running longer. And even at 50% of snaps, he is the largest piece of our Offense outside of Josh. Cook had 207 rushing attempts 32 receptions last year. He got the ball 239 times. The next most utilized player is Shakir with 76 receptions. Not even 1/3rd of Cooks touches.

Well that escalated quickly...

Henry's contract is an anomaly that yall need to get over. It isnt a market value contract. He is in his 30s. Additionally, his cap hit this year is $13M, so already much closer to what we're talking about for Cook. And the Ravens are now the top spenders at the RB position in the entire league. Just like no one is asking Cook to be paid like Barkley who is above $20M/yr. But Cook is arguably better than Jonathan Taylor who is making more than $15M this year.

What a crazy thing to argue when the players are telling you themselves. Who cares if it is placebo or not. It still gets the job done. And there is no way you can watch all the film of Josh attacking Ramsey and say there was nothing there. It was on a different level than anyone else he has played against. It was targeted, it was aggressive, it was filthy, and it was glorious.

Even more to your point, literally $25M per year now that streaming is involved.

If yall dont think Josh will be planning something special for this kid, then yall dont know Josh or these high-level competitors. They use literally anything. Often times even manufacturing grievances in their own head to fuel the fire. Watch any documentary/30for30, you'll hear about it often.

The one thing you are wrong about. Pobodies nerfect I guess

Oh, I think we all "get" what he was saying. Doesnt mean that it wont go right onto Josh's bulletin board to be used against him later on.

This kid has no idea what he just unleashed on himself. My brain also went immediately to Jalen Ramsey. Starks needs to go watch tape of what Josh did to Ramsey on the Rams and Dolphins. It was filthy. I'm legit scared for this kid's safety. Should be fun.

$50M isnt going to get it done, but you can easily get under the a $12M "average" even at $60. He has 1 yr left at $5M, add on 4/$60 with 1 void year, and all of a sudden it's 6/$65M ($10.8M/yr avg) and we have him locked up and affordable for what will likely be his entire career.

You ok dude?

Edwards has been discussed here as the one player on the OL who will likely leave well before these Cook talks ever started. So I dont see it as "paying Cook made us lose Edwards". Theres been a lot of talk about Alec Anderson being groomed to take his place after his contract is up. Again, all independent of the Cook situation. Point is, I think we'll be ok if Edwards is the one OL we lose.

Great post, and I dont mean to dismiss it by chopping so much out. Rather, this is the one point I want to add to... Given Beane's track record on early extensions, it can be assumed we'll get some discount and not full market value. For the rest of it, we'll all hope that streaming money keeps flowing in.

They wont hit FA. Beane will have McGovern and Torrence extended before they hit FA. Its already been reported that talks with McGovern have started.

I'm not a big void year guy either. But it is a tool that can be used, and Beane has used it before on even greater risk players (an injured Hyde at the end of his career, for example). But like we've said, even just 1 year changes the numbers significantly. And lets us pay him his desired "15 mil year", while the average and cap hit is more like $11M.

Should be able to keep them all together. Cook is looking to make about as much as we just paid Shakir. We do not have a top WR who will command $20-30M. Knox will be coming off the books soon too. So we have Josh as the big money. Re-sign most of the OL (I think Edwards may walk either way), and keep our valued skill-position difference makers in the $12-15M range. All doable. Especially with streaming money hitting the cap increase every year.

You're going to love my posts that followed the one you quoted. I said pretty much the same thing wrt averaging in the last rookie year. And even tacking on 1 void year to bring it to about $11M/yr even with the "$15M average" on the new deal. The best part is, Beane knows all this better than even we do.