BarleyNY

Either Aaron Rodgers at this point in his career, Kyler Murray or Trevor Lawrence.

Players gotta watch their knees around Fitzpatrick too. Nick Chubb was killing the Steelers in the game Fitzpatrick took his knee out. We’re all still waiting to see if Chubb will be able to even get close to the same player he was.

I think that there’s something to my speculation. You are correct that WNY is big enough to support both the Bills and Sabres. And that the Sabres’ longtime ineptitude has worn away loyalty and sapped any enthusiasm. That’s a big part of the problem. But what I’m talking about is the bet the Pegula’s would have to make on turning the Sabres around - and the possible financial outcomes. It reminds me a lot of what happened in Cleveland in 1995. The Browns were on their way out of town and the Cavs were terrible. Indians owner, Dick Jacobs, saw an opportunity. He had a beautiful new stadium, some good homegrown talent and Cleveland had a huge hole in the sports market. So he took a chance and spent large on filling out his roster. The Indians went from being ann perpetually inept team and drawing a few thousand fans every game to an MLB powerhouse that drew celebrities to the city and sold out 455 straight games. But Jacobs said he would not have tried it all if the Browns had stayed and been competitive. There just wasn’t room in the market. It would be one thing if the Sabres had stayed a competent and competitive team. They’d have a fan base that was engaged and spending money at games. But they’re nowhere close. They would really have to do something to convince the fans to come back and spend. That would mean investing large early and in continuation to have a chance to be good enough to bring back fans. That’s a big dollar gamble with no certainty of a payout. If you are Pegula, why take that gamble now? When you’re also selling PSLs to the same fan base? When you’re pouring cash into the Bills team and stadium? When the fans are already spending on the Bills? you can’t tell me that if the Sabres were as good as the Bills that many fans would not have to make a choice between which one to get season tickets for or that games attended for one would not impact games attended for the other. It would for many. So why take a very large gamble on the Sabres now instead of when the payout would be bigger?

Yeah, I don’t think anyone was debating that. Including funding your family’s lifestyle on your list of goals while aggressively downsizing and asking those that remain to take on more work is extremely tone deaf though. The article pointed out that according to many it did not help morale there.

That slide was obtained and verified by The Athletic. See for yourself:

That all great, but it doesn’t mean they’re making a profit. They may be, but it’s by no means a given - especially in that industry. You seemed certain so I thought you may have had some insight, but you were just speculating based on the popularity of some of their artists. And that’s a good thing obviously. I doubt it much matters when it comes to their sports franchises anyway.

How do you know it’s successful? It is not a public company so its financials are not known.

I think that Pegula realizes that there’s a limited number of dollars people in WNY have to spend on sports. If the Sabres were as good as the Bills, then a lot more people would be making decisions about where to spend their money between the two It would take a lot of money up front and more in continuation to get the Sabres to a point where they’d be truly competitive. If you are strictly looking at maximizing profit, then why push with the Sabres now?

Through every fault his own.

Honestly, maybe the Bills and Cook’s camp are both correct. Realistically, players like him often get overpaid when they hit FA. These days not RBs so much, but it happens. Barring a bad injury I would bet that some bad team will overpay Cook next off-season. At minimum he should get about what he would from the Bills. So he’s gambling on himself having a good year and it getting injured. I’ve got no problem with that. This all doesn’t mean that the Bills aren’t handling this correctly too though. They appear to have his value properly determined. We don’t know for sure because we don’t have those numbers, but judging by the other contracts they handed out this off-season I’d say they’re probably offering something that is more than fair. Sometimes things don’t work out. And that’s okay.

a team doesn’t get a comp pick unless they have a player whose contract expires AND that player signs a qualifying contract from another team AND your team signs fewer FAs to qualifying contracts. Cook’s rookie deal expires after THIS season.

What’s the $12k up against? No SB win for how long? Life? 1 season? Or better yet, what’s everyone’s individual number for no SB in your lifetime? What about your and your kids’ lifetime? Assume tax-free/after tax for ease of discussion.

Without Allen and no one else brought in to play QB, I say around 5 wins. With Trubisky behind center we’d have the worse starting QB in almost every game. There’s a reason he didn’t get a sniff as even a bridge QB somewhere and he’s here making $2.6M/year. That’s what NFL GMs think of him.

Sirens was just recommended to my wife by a friend. It’s on our list to start watching next.

I don’t actually think Cook is as valuable as most here. His workload and usage doesn’t warrant a premium contract IMO. Over the last two seasons the Bills found the right usage. He broke down in 2023 and the Bills reduced his usage in 2024, which worked well. I have broken this down a couple times already but it equated to about 50% of snaps in competitive situations in 2024. By contrast, Barkley plays nearly 100% of snaps while games are competitive. His usage is probably even more important. Cook is a 1st and 2nd down player. He’s not on the field for obvious passing downs or for obvious running downs. No 3rd/4th and short. No goal to go from short either. He wasn’t on the field for 3rd downs or obvious passing downs because he’s only an okay receiver and he’s poor at pass protection. He’s also not on the field at the end of close games when we are running the ball to close it out. So what does Cook do well? 1st & 10 or 2nd and 5, he’s been really good. He's kept the load off of Allen and that certainly has value. But I dare say that there are a lot of RBs that could be effective in those situations with Allen at QB keeping defenses honest. And of all the high leverage situations on offense, Cook isn’t on the field for any of them. So I just don’t think a premium contract anywhere close to $15M AAV can be justified. In short, even if Cook does give us an extra 10% on plays (and that’s debatable) it’s got less value on the plays he’s in for than it would on the higher leverage ones that he’s on the bench for.