BarleyNY

That’s the big question - what’s he got left? At the right price and paired with a draft pick in the first or second round I’d be on board. Draft pick, Bosa, Rousseau, Epenesa and Solomon is a solid DE group. That draft pick has to be of the twitchy, bendy, speed rusher type though.

5 sacks in 14 games last season. That makes him a cut candidate at his price. So it would make sense to wait and see what happens by 3/12 when he has a huge roster bonus due. He’ll either rework his contract because he wants to stay in LA or they’ll cut him loose. Do I want him here? He’s going into his age 30 season and has a concerning injury history so it would have to be on a heavily incentivized contract. Maybe he wants to chase a ring and we give him his best shot at that. That’s about the only way I see it working out. No way do I trade for him on his current contract.

Same as Bills. 0-4 except they spread it out over 8 seasons.

Did you actually read my post? And can you be more specific about what you’re disagreeing about? I never said he wouldn’t get a contract from the Bills or another team this season or next. (Though in previous posts I disagreed with some about his value.) I just pointed out that the timing of his public demands allows the Bills to cover their rear ends on RBs. You think that’s wrong?

It does. Simply put, every dollar paid to a player hits the cap. Jones is set to make $7.75M in cash this season. That hits the cap this season and next (due to the void years) if we keep him on that contract. Obviously he has some unaccounted for cap dollars that have yet to hit it too. Those would be spread out over this season and next if he stays on the team or just hit this season if he is released next month. (Also a post 6/1 designation would push out some of the hit if cut next month.)

The other issue is that keeping Jones will add $7.75M to what I refer to as “total cap burden”. (The total cap dollars in all years that keeping a player on the roster adds to the team’s annual caps.) IOW, cutting him next month doesn’t do our 2025 cap any favors, but it does eliminate his 2026 cap hit, which is substantial. The total difference in cap space is $7.75M to keep him this season. If he can’t play anymore, then cut him and manage the 2025 cap in other ways. Other players can be restructured or they can use a post 6/1 designation on him. That is much better than burning nearly $8M in space.

The Steelers denied inquiring about Lawrence. They would be stupid to admit it if they had, so the denial means nothing (except that they’re a reasonably competent FO). Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. No way to know either way. I’ll say this though, they SHOULD be looking into every decent QB who is potentially available.

@Beck Water One additional thought: Cook has already made a big mistake IMO. I do not know if his agent had a role in Cook going public when he did and with what he said, but the timing was not wise. We are still weeks away from free agency and have the draft after that. Any competent GM is going to cover his rear end - and that is going to severely damage Cook’s leverage. If James and his brother had waited until mid-May to do this, then the Bills might’ve been in a tougher spot. If Leist is smart, he’ll get something done quickly.

It’s worth noting that James Cook’s agent, Matt Leist, has only negotiated two NFL contracts. One was Dalvin Cooks’.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the draft and other extensions. What they do at RB in the draft will tell us a lot. Beane has typically done extensions like Cook’s in or around September. Lotta time between now and then.

I never said I was mad at Cook for asking for more than he’s worth. That’s not a problem unless he escalates it to a problem. I simply pointed out that he’s not worth what he’s asking for. His size and limitations as a RB limit his role and snap count. That limits his value.

Making Cook play out his deal and then hitting him with a tag next offseason is certainly a reasonable course of action if a deal on an extension isn’t reached. Extensions on rookie deals (and fifth year options) usually include the dollar amount and remaining year(s) of the current contract and add new years at current market value to that. Some current and future salary is then converted to a signing bonus to give the player some cash up front. So there is a lot of incentive for both sides to get a deal done. That should happen ad long as both parties are reasonable.

I wish I could disagree with you. That really does seem to be the big flaw in just about any plan.

Your low end of $11M is not much different than the $10.5M AAV I used in my example, but it is significantly different than the $15M for which you had been advocating. I’ll stress that the $10.5M AAV is on new years only in my example. I thought would be a fair compromise and realistic MV. Cash is what matters to players. Structure is largely about cap management. I have no problem giving Cook a nice signing bonus this offseason and taking his salary down to vet min this season and next. I would try to limit guarantees to the first two seasons, but a partial in year 3 would be on the table for a longer extension.

It’s going to be very difficult to find difference makers at multiple positions in one offseason. I agree that we really need that, but I see FA as more for finding adequate starters to fill roster holes. It’s not going to be an easy road this offseason, but the Bills put themselves in this position.