Kirby Jackson

Welcome to the NFL in 2025. The Super Bowl Champs had their superstar WR publicly complaining about their Super Bowl MVP QB. Talent >>>> Vibes Why do we care about him complaining publicly? How does it impact us? Generally, the players support other players. This won’t be an issue in the locker room. It’ll be a much bigger issue in the locker room if players get a sense that he wasn’t treated fairly. Fans and players have opposite perspectives on this topic.

That’s the whole point!! That’s been part of the problem. You don’t pay a Rousseau $20M a year to be a quality starter. You pay Cook top 3 RB money to be a top 5 back. You understand the value of the player compared to the marketplace. You don’t get better by fighting with your top guys and “setting the tone of who is in charge.” That’s what you do when you’re building a roster. That’s not what you do when you’re competing for a championship (and please don’t use the Tyreek Hill example here because there are lots of examples where windows closed when top players left). Also, who cares what the Bills pay him? It’s not our money. Kick the can down the road!!! Do what the Saints did with Brees. Push all of the money into the post Josh Allen years and keep re-upping to do that. The thread on the cap has some interesting thoughts on cap management. The actual dollars are irrelevant. The cap hits are all that matter to us as fans. Can the Bills have a championship caliber roster? Yes, but they need to keep paying up front today and taking the cap hits years from now.

This is nothing new. This is what a lot of players do at this point. Cook is coming off a great year and he has some leverage. You utilize that leverage when you have it. If he was coming off a horrible year, he’d be worried about keeping the money in his contract. He’s coming off a great year and looking for a raise. We all seek our market value. I have zero issue with this. Now, the question becomes, “what should they do?” IMO, I’d probably just make it work. Cook is a gamer and proved his worth this year despite not being an every down back. I’m not really concerned about that as I’d bring Johnson back to fill those gaps and you have Davis. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Bills window is WIDE open and will be for the next 5+ years. Borrow from the future to win now. I’m not going to draw a line in the sand at $12M or whatever if it’ll take $15M. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Find the money and make it happen. The Bills issue has been a lack of top end talent. It’s reasonable to think that Cook is a top 5 back in this system. He was really good this year and good in big games. I guess that you could make him a part of a Garrett or Crosby trade but I wouldn’t. I’d trade Rousseau instead. He’s more of a good starter than a potentially elite player. Get the Cook contract done and move on. It’s one less thing to worry about. Don’t step over dollars to pick up pennies.

Personally, I wouldn’t consider re-signing Groot at anything over about $14M. My guess is that he is in the $20M range. You just can’t pay role players, top of the market prices. That’s what they did with Knox and Oliver. Groot is a great trade chip this offseason. He is a pretty good player that is 12 months from being a pretty terrible contract for someone.

That’s good to know. It’s such an important position in the McDermott defense. I would love for him to develop because he has the athletic ability to be quite good. The Bills need some insurance though at S either way.

I hope that you’re right. He may be. I don’t think that they can count on that though. If he develops, awesome. It should be a bonus.

The Bills need to improve the DL and secondary. The Bills ALSO need to find a receiver(s) that can stretch the field vertically. I think that the stat is that only 2 teams saw less 2 high than the Bills. Allen and Cook were forced to operate against an extra defender in the box because they couldn’t get the safeties away from the LOS because of the lack of a vertical passing game. Imagine how many more points they could have scored? Everybody eats until they don’t. The offense worked fine until it didn’t. They don’t have lots of holes on offense but they have a giant one that they couldn’t overcome.

I agree that Hamlin is a role player and Bishop looked lost. He may develop but they certainly can’t bank on it. I wanted McKinney last year in FA. I wish that would have happened. I like Holland. Nick Emmanwori is one of my draft crushes but I’m hoping to have that pick sent to Garrett. If he somehow made it to pick 56 you should run to the podium.

It sounds like he thought he’d be on the Bills 🤷🏻‍♂️

If you believe McDermott is more responsible for the team success than Josh, we disagree. If you think that McDermott will be more responsible than Josh for a title (god willing) we disagree again. I’m basing any and every decision based on what Josh needs to get by KC not what McDermott wants or needs.

I’m more or less in agreement (assuming that guy can stretch the field vertically). I’d like a precise route runner too but if that guy is the right one, I’m good.

The Bills scored more points than anyone. The offense still isn’t good enough. Both of those are true. The offense has some clear holes and allows defenses to defend them too easily. They need to improve.

It’s a great topic and one that we need to discuss. I’d add Beane too. I thought about starting a poll “if the Bills fall short of the Super Bowl should Beane and McDermott be fired?” I’m on record that I thought McDermott should have been gone by now. I’ve defended Beane but after last year’s draft he belongs on the hot seat. This team should have been in the Super Bowl by now. If it isn’t happening, you need to try something else.

“I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds and Griffey, and we wouldn’t have to give up that much.”

Think back to last offseason. The Bills were in a tight cap situation and desperately needed help at WR. Brown was available and at a price that the Bills could afford. Allen had a lot of success with a lesser version of Hollywood Brown in John Brown. It should come as no surprise that Josh would voice to Beane & co. that we would be interested in playing with that skill set. He is/was a very good fit and affordable.

So Josh Allen wants to play with a WR that has proven he can threaten the defense vertically? In other news, water is wet.

I don’t subscribe but for those of you that do it feels like this belongs here:

Really well said here!! The answer is, “it’s both.” The Bills need to improve the defense (specifically pass rush) AND get better on the outside with playmaking WRs. You articulated here though some of the divide that’s been on this board for months (if not years). When push comes to shove Josh is the guy that’s going to get this team over the top, not McDermott. It is like if you’re a pitcher and you throw 97. You have a really good fastball. There are 2 schools of thought on how you get better. We can work on your curve to make you more balanced OR we can try to get 97 to 101. Both avenues will make you better but do you believe that a good fastball and pretty good curve ball is better than an elite fastball and average curve? I’m generally of the belief that you take what you do best and make it better. It’s the concept of the book “Strengthfinders.” Understand what you do well and try to do that better as oppossed to spending time/resources trying to cover up your warts.

That’s fair and I’m a bit of a hypocrite on this as well. I’m always a high ceiling guy and banged the drum for WR. As you know, I wasn’t a Coleman guy. In large part, I didn’t think that his ceiling was that high because of his lack of separation. I would have went “safer” with McConkey or Worthy. I also liked guys like Javon Baker and Ricky Pearsall who didn’t do much last year. Lol, Baker caught 1 ball all year. They should have taken multiple guys at the position either way. The WR position has been woefully mismanaged/neglected.

Burden feels like a guy with a very high floor and a high ceiling. There’s virtually no chance of him busting (even if that means he has to play primarily from the slot).

Sorry that you didn’t like saying “wait until he gets hurt” is a weak argument. Waiting until anyone gets hurt is a weak argument. Let’s just look at the resume of when they played. The comparison that I provided was the way that they ended the season. One of them flourished and appeared to be blossoming into a star. The other came back and struggled catching 10 of his last 29 targets. I’m not going to live in the hypothetical world of, “yeah but if he gets hurt and doesn’t play the other guy will be better.” That is dumb. Let’s look at what they did while playing. When they were both healthy, Worthy was a much better player.

I am on board. He was a crazy high recruit too. That reminds me of Diggs a little bit.

Appreciate you answering the question. To be clear, I’m not saying Coleman has no chance. He actually has some skills with the ball in the air and the ball in his hands. I’m saying that it was a dumb pick because the Bills needed an immediate contributor. I blame them more than him. He has some upside but I think it’s as a contributor not a focal point. In, arguably, the best WR draft ever, it sucks when that was your biggest need and you traded down twice for a role player. That’s a poor job by the Beane and co. Let’s hope that he develops into more than a 3rd or 4th receiver. Lol, that’s my least favorite argument. The “wait until he gets hurt” argument. Worthy played every game this year I think and Coleman missed a month and a half. Why should we assume that Worthy is more likely to be injured? That’s a stupid assumption and an incredibly weak argument.

We are definitely in agreement here. You and I are generally in agreement but have differed on Coleman. With that desperate need, I didn’t think a project was a good idea. The needed a higher floor. Both Worthy and obviously McConkey checked that box. Beane loves to chase a high ceiling but I didn’t believe that he had that luxury last draft.