Kirby Jackson

Nope, just proactively addressing it so that people can’t twist words. Does the draft look good as of today? No. Is it definitely a failure? No. Were there better options than Coleman and Bishop available at those spots? Yes. All of that is true. That shouldn’t be hard to understand.

You might have jumped in late. The response was to the poster that suggested that the Eagles 1st 3 picks look better than the Bills 1st 3 picks because they picked earlier. The response was, “if the Bills picked McConkey and Bullock instead of Coleman and Bishop” we wouldn’t be using when in the round they picked as an excuse. To be clear for the late comers, NO ONE IS SAYING THAT THE DRAFT IS DEFINITELY A FAILURE AT THIS POINT. At the same time, there were guys picked at the same positions, that were available to the Bills, that are off to better (in some cases much better) starts.

Ladd can play outside as he did at UGA. He played 70.3% of his snaps there and parlayed that into getting picked early. He played nearly 30% of the snaps on the outside as a rookie. He’s not ONLY a slot guy like Beasley for example. He’s closer to Amon-Ra St. Brown. He will probably be somewhere closer to like 60/40 slot to boundary.

McConkey ran 70.3% of his routes at UGA from the outside. To say that he’s a “pure slot option” is false. The Chargers used him a lot in the slot but not because they had to. They did it because it worked. He finished his rookie year with 82/1149/7.

So if the Bills drafted better, they would have hit on their first 2 picks as well? Is that the point? We could have taken Ladd or Worthy instead of Coleman. We could have taken Bullock instead of Bishop. If we started Ladd and Bullock, the Bills would have hit on their first two picks as well. Both were available at the Bills picks even after the trade downs.

Not sure if this is in the thread or not. Full disclosure, I haven’t watched it but respect Cover 1:

Seriously? Is this what we are doing? 🤣🤣 The Eagles had 2 of the 5 defensive rookie of the year finalists and their 3rd pick played 41% of the defensive snaps in the Super Bowl. We are comparing that to the Coleman, Bishop, Carter start? Just stop

Okay, now do the Eagles. The entire point is that if your rookie class comes out of the gates strong, no one cares about the 3 year rule. The 3 year rule applies when you have Coleman, Bishop and Carter as your first 3.

Do you think that the Eagles are saying, “don’t judge our 2024 class for 3 years?” What about the Commanders?

1 year in, it looks like a bad draft class. Rookies are contributing all over the league these days. The Super Bowl Champs are a great example. I wasn’t a fan of the Coleman pick (at all). The Bills were in desperate need of a WR at the top of the depth chart. They draft a project that can’t get open. Through one season, he looked like a project, and never got open. He flashed an ability to get down the field, solid run blocking, run after the catch and good ball skills. Coleman was better than I expected but he’s a role player IMO. There were better WRs available. It was such a huge need last year and they didn’t do well with the pick. It’s not time to close the book on him and he did flash. With that being said, he’s behind where they need him to be and behind the some of the other options available at that pick (Worthy & McConkey for sure). Bishop looked lost. I’ve been told by some on here that he improved quite a bit later in the year. I guess that I didn’t notice but I hope that’s right. He has the athletic ability to play there. It’s such an important position in the McDermott defense. He needs to get up to speed quickly. He’s behind where his peers are (Dejean and Bullock come to mind) but that is hopefully a function of learning a complicated role. I hope that he turns into a quality starter. Carter was my favorite pick at the time. He looked so good at the Senior Bowl. I thought that he would be a 12 year, rotational DT, on Day 1. He was okay before the injury but not as ready as I had hoped. He needs to improve and be a part of the rotation this year. Davis looks like a fine rotational RB. That’s what you hope for in the middle of the draft. He can do a little of everything and does it pretty well. He has a lot of mileage for a rookie (only 70 less scrimmage touches than Cook through college & pros) but looks like has had the body to hold up. He’s a guy that should give you a few, solid, dependable years. Of the rest of the guys, I was excited about SVPG & Solomon. Solomon has a knack for getting to the QB. He’s going to be a solid rotational player. That was a strong pick. Grable looks like a player as well. The Bills did a nice job from round 4 on. That’s been a consistent theme. It’s a big reason that their roster has had such great depth. The struggles early in the draft are the reason that they don’t have enough top end talent. That’s why they shouldn’t hesitate if Garrett, Crosby, etc.. are viable. The roster lacks top end talent. That’s a function of Elam, Kincaid, Coleman, Epenesa, Boogie Basham, etc going early. This draft is only a year old. It’s not time to panic. They aren’t where they need them either. Both of those are true. The Bills have developed some guys in this regime. They need these guys to contribute. I suspect Coleman will still be a role player (albeit an improved one), Bishop an everyday starter along Rapp & Carter needs to be in the rotation. If that happens, with the contributions from the rest of the class, it will work out okay.

It’s just the way of the world in 2025. Social media made that a thing. It’s not going to change; the train has left the station. He may hold out but I suspect that they pay him or deal him prior.

Do you think $15M is his hard line? Have you ever seen anyone start negotiations with their drop dead number? $15M is a the starting point of the negotiation. I think he ends up at $12.5Mish which feels about right.

I’m thinking yes for all of the reasons mentioned. He’s an obvious for it. They love sports stars and he checks lots of boxes. I’m getting ready for SNL50 now!!

How did he show himself vs. KC? Do you agree it’s more important how you perform in the AFC Championship Game than it is what your profile pic on IG is?

Your point here is totally fair. While I’m on record that he should be back, that logic is sensical. People saying that they got good mileage out of him and should deal him while is value is high, make sense. People that think he’s really valuable but the Bills should “send a message because of social media posts” are completely clueless. 🤣🤣 Whatever decision the Bills make will be made through the lens of “what’s best for business?” The social media stuff is a non-factor no matter how bunched up some posters on TBD’s panties get.

He signed a 2 year $19.75M extension. I rounded $9.875M to $10M. https://overthecap.com/player/joe-mixon/5634

I watched a lot of the Texans. He was a 2 down guy. Regardless of what he did with the Bengals, the Texans wanted him as a 2 down guy. Ogunbowale played 3rd downs and was the receiving back.

RB values will increase after the years of Saquon & Henry. Mixon signed for $10M last year, has more miles and is a 2 down guy. Cook outperformed him all year. If Cook went into FA today, what do you believe he would get? As you said, that $5.5M number isn’t in the ball park. It would be twice that without question. He may not get to $15M but there’s zero chance that he’s less than $10M. Now he’s in position to get market value. He’s proven to be a very valuable member of this offense.

All fair and the argument would be that Cook has just over 4x the touches with good efficiency. I suspect Cook ends up at $12.5M and Johnson at $2.5M-$3M.

Convienent. Well to refresh your memory, Brown said that “passing” needed to improve 2 months ago (in the middle of a long winning streak). Later that week, veteran Brandon Graham talked publicly about the strained relationship between the QB and the star WR. It was the Diggs situation all over and in the media. Now THAT is a distraction to the team, not a guy asking for more money. The Eagles didn’t send a message (to anyone but the Chiefs). They got over it, moved on, and had a parade yesterday.

Did you have this same energy about AJ Brown with the Eagles this year? Were his “antics” (which were way worse by the way) not what they needed to get over the hump?

Gross stats don’t tell the story of effectiveness. They tell someone how often you did something. Tony Pollard had 260/1079/5? You’re saying that’s better? What about Connor at 236/1094/8? Mixon at 245/1016/11? Najee at 263/1043/6? This isn’t 1994 anymore (or even a decade ago). Advanced stats and efficiency stats are infinitely more important than gross stats. You know that. That’s how players are judged in 2025. That’s how you end up with Lamar’s 2023 MVP season (while receiving 49 of 50 votes). Teams care WAY more about EPA than they do about rushing yards. They care about “how did you do when you got the ball?” That’s why analytics departments and people are all over the league. They’re measuring the effectiveness of each player on each play. You are making the effiency point with your Ty Johnson illustration. This was Johnson’s 6th year. It was his 4th fewest touches and he produced his 2nd most scrimmage yards on that. He made $1.3M this year. You can expect that number to double next year. It isn’t because of how many total yards or touches he had!! It’s because of how impactful those touches were, as you so eloquently laid out.

He has 70 less scrimmage touches from college to now than Ray Davis. He’s ascending and fresh. The Bills already have the complementary guy in Davis and likely will bring back the 3rd piece in Ty Johnson. Effiency matters more than gross stats as you illustrated with the Mostert example. I was saying, “if you’re trying to mislead people with gross stats why are you conveniently leaving out that he had the most rushing TDs in the league despite being 20th in carries?” Cook was 5th amongst starters in YPC, and scored at an alarming rate (on a team with a QB that ran for a dozen more). He also never fumbles. He was a top 5ish RB last year that peaked in the playoffs. He’s absolutely the best skill player on the Bills. I’m also not a fan of the 2 down back argument. The Bills don’t want/need him to play as a pass blocker. They didn’t use Shady in those situations either. Cook stays fresh by not taking a beating picking up blitzing linebackers. That’s not a negative. Johnson is perfect in that role and as a receiving back. Now should they have had him out there on the final drive? Of course, he’s their best skill player (not including JA obviously). Cook is an ascending back, that’s arguably a top 5 guy and certainly top 10. The Bills don’t have any other skill players that are close to top 5 or 10. RBs are cheap too. They’re paying their second TE $10M a year. They can afford to allocate the $ to Cook because they have $17,761,391 in cap hits allocated to WR. For comparison, the Seahawks have over $62.5M in cap hits dedicated to 2 WRs (obviously they’ll try to lower that but you get the point). The Bills can afford a bigger investment in Cook because they don’t have big money tied up with the other skill guys.

Are you trying to use volume stats to downplay Cook’s value? If so, add TDs. He will always be a part of a committee. He was in college too. Henry, Gibbs, Barkley and Irving were the only starting RBs with higher YPC. Cook did so while seeing the 3rd fewest reps against 2 deep defenses. If you want to talk about how valuable he is, don’t try to give rushing yards or carries as your argument. His efficiency is what matters. McDermott and Beane believe in a RB by committee and that goes back to the Carolina days with Williams & Stewart.

Looking to trade Cook in one of those deals is fine and may be on the table. You need to stop looking at “positional numbers” and look at “player value.” If you think that Knox should get more than Cook, we disagree. The value of the RB increased this year. $12.5M AAV with $24M GTD would slot him between Mixon and Taylor. That’s seems fair. Again, I’m not going to argue on how players perceive this. I know. The Diggs situation and the Cook situation are different. Diggs wanted the ball and to be the guy. Cook wants to get paid. It’s apples and oranges. If the Bills don’t pay Cook it isn’t because of how he’s handled it. That’s kind of the point. FANS care about how it was handled. TEAMS don’t care about that. The Eagles superstar WR, called out the QB a couple of months ago. They were up 34-0 in the Super Bowl 5 days ago. They didn’t “send him a message.” Reading through this thread has been cringe. People wanting to jettison the best offensive skill player because he asked for $15M is the kind of insecure nonsense that used to plague this fan base. We need to act like we’ve been there before. Enough of the Rudy mentality!! We don’t need palm trees to recruit. We don’t need to protect ourselves emotionally in case one of our players leaves. It isn’t “because they are a bad guy or we aren’t good enough for them.” It’s a business and the Bills are operating in the deep end. Pull the emotions out of this and look at it objectively as Beane is. It isn’t about, “he shouldn’t have gone public and now he should go.” It’s about, “what is he worth to the Bills and can a deal get done at that number?” That’s how this will, and should, play out.