BarleyNY

At the end of the day everyone understands that it’s a business. Can there be hard feelings with the player that gets tagged? Sure. But so what? It’s the rules the players agreed to and it’s what everyone has to live by. As for whether it’s good business. Often it is. Teams that abuse it are the Bengals of the league. It’s not the defining issue with them, it’s a symptom of how they do business.

It’s worthwhile to hear what the “company men” in the media say about such things. Listening to Tasker, it’s not the way the Bills are going to do business. They want backups that get along well with Allen and can help him prepare for games. I think it’s worthwhile to draft and develop a later round backup. The Bills aren’t going to do that anytime soon. It is what it is.

The reason isn’t because teams are afraid of hurting players’ feelings. Teams have been smart enough to get ahead of signing their quality players and have been getting that done early. Cap considerations are certainly part of that. Players get security and teams get a cheaper deal. The huge jumps in the cap have been very helpful because it’s provided the space for teams to keep more of their own players. Probably. But how much depends on the contract amount and structure. Also that’s IF we franchise tag him next offseason. There’s the transition tag for less. Or maybe he falls off and we sign him for a lesser contract - or not at all. Or maybe he goes off and we do franchise tag him. That’s fine too.

Okay. Franchise tag. a) that’s a long way off and a lot can happen in a year and b) it might piss off Cook, but I do not see it impacting any other player’s opinion of the Bills.

So who thinks that the culture and general appeal of the Bills will be significantly impacted if the Bills hold firm at a number they deem appropriate and a deal doesn’t get done? I sure don’t. I thought I was clear about that aspect of the discussion.

So you’d just give every player everything they want? lol. And do you think that team option restructures aren’t baked into virtually every contract these days? Talk about amateur GMing. Players are happy when their teammates get paid, but they all take care of their own business. Whether or not Cook gets paid means nothing to them when it comes to their own money.

Hey doc, that’s a pretty sweet surgery gig you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened and you couldn’t do that no more……

These kinds of restructures are necessary for teams with such aggressive salary cap management, like the Eagles who the Browns are trying to emulate. Unfortunately for Garrett and the teams that would love to acquire him, it makes trading players like him extremely difficult unless they are at the end of their contract. The only thing that makes a trade even remotely possible is that they insured Watson’s contract. They are due $13.6M credit this season from his injury last year and if he misses this season they’ll get $44.3M back in 2026. But I still don’t see it. If he gets back partway through the season, then that number reduces and it’s still crippling to trade him now. And what playoff caliber team is going to save cap space and wait until 6/2 to make a trade for him? That’s not happening.

Can’t say I know much about him other than he’s a OLB/Edge, but this is odd on its face. They have plenty of cap space and plenty of needs. He’s still in his prime years and has two seasons left on his contract. $17.5M each, no guarantees. So either he isn’t living up to that and he’ll likely be cut or he is and wants a contract extension with some guaranteed money and TEN doesn’t want to give him that. Anyone have any insight? Edit: Looked up his 2024 PFF grades (for what that’s worth). Excellent against the run and very good in coverage, but poor in pass rush. That would explain TEN wanting to cut ties. If that’s accurate, hard pass.

I disagree on your point about what you hope many rookie players can become. Take Henderson for example. He not only has been an excellent runner in college, but he’s also been excellent in pass protection and as a receiver. The hope for him is that all three phases translate to the pros and he’s an excellent all around back, something Cook isn’t. Some other rookies will be expected to shoulder a high workload and be on the field for short yardage situations, also things Cook can’t do effectively. I hope we can work something out with Cook. He’s an excellent runner and he helps this team, but he is limited in several areas. There is no way should he get close to the $15M AAV he’s asking for.

They won’t care as long as they get their cut.

I’m going to roll some additional insights I’ve gotten into this response. So it’s gonna be long. I don’t see any negative long term consequences for playing hardball with Garrett. Money talks to players and agents and the Browns spend. No player is walking away from a couple million extra dollars because the Browns made a player play out his contract. If a FA doesn’t want to sign with the Browns because they’re a crapshow, well, that’s already the case. This changes nothing. The issues are thus: - 2 years left on his contract. That’s four years of control with tags. The players gave up a lot of their ability to force trades like this in the last CBA. - The Browns were prepared to make him the highest paid defender in league history. He’ll be leaving a ton of guaranteed money on the table if he doesn’t resolve this in some way. - A big facet of this is agents and players trying to gain a much bigger say in the way teams are run. Similar to the NBA. It should be no surprise that Myles has been talking a lot with Lebron. It should come as no surprise to see the Browns targeted for this since they already bucked league standards by giving Watson a fully guaranteed five year contract. What better team to go after? - Here’s the biggest issue. If the Browns trade Garrett it destroys their cap flexibility. As of now his contract can provide relief. That’s the case whether it stays as is or gets replaced by a new one. If he’s traded they get hit with a huge charge. Double whammy. So if he’s traded, then they’re looking at a tear down and 2-3 year rebuild. There’s no way that Berry and Stefanski survive that. The decision would have to be Haslam’s alone and he’s not tanking the team while trying to get a stadium deal done. All three of them are vested in having a decent 2025 season at minimum. - The recent statement by Garrett’s agent seems to be nothing more than a response to Berry’s comments at the Combine. They couldn’t do nothing. But it doesn’t mean anything new either. Notably they reiterated the they were not interested in an extension. Prior to that word was that he would get a new contract with the old one torn up. So there’s some cover there for the agents. - I know Beane and many other GMs have inquired, but Berry has not engaged any of them. No listening to offers. Just “no”. So the likely outcome is that this simmers for a while, the Browns make some moves (FA, trade, draft) and it gives Garrett cover to say that the Browns did what he demanded (to some degree at least). Then he can take his huge new truck of money or, if he still really wants out, kick the can a year when it at least would be possible to trade him. That’s what I have so far.

Agreed. He’s still playing very well, but you have to worry about where the cliff is for him. He’ll be 33 in November. I believe in the saying “It’s better to move on from a player a year too early rather than a year too late.” Looks like KC believes that too.

I don’t want to give up on Kincaid either. It’s not the smart move here. That said, it’s not what you paid for something that defines its worth, its value determines that. Right now Kincaid is not worth more than a third - and we would probably have trouble getting that. His struggles and injury last season and him being halfway through his cost controlled rookie contract both factor into that. So it’s not worth it to trade him because his upside outweighs his trade value. The same was true of Brown and that worked out. Maybe it’ll work out with Kincaid too. It’s certainly worth that chance IMO.

I agree with everything here with one caveat - I do not believe that Garrett is actually available. If he is or becomes so, then I’d love for the Bills to go balls to the wall to get him. He’d be transformative for the this defense and team.