GunnerBill

He played better but his deep ball accuracy was still not there.

I said it the other day I think there is a deal that is doable at camp that gives him some injury guarantees without a long term commitment with a declinable option next year. It would essentially serve the same purpose as a one year bridge to whatever happens in 2026.

First, Cook didn't say he feels "disconnected." That was Schefter's word to try and describe where he thinks the relationship is at. As for moving him for a 5th or 6th during the draft..... do you think that pick is more valuable to the Bills in 2025 than James Cook? I think unlikely. And they will get that value back next year in terms of a comp pick if he walks and depending on what else we do in free agency. And on "he should have asked before the draft" trust me he did. The Bills and Cook had conversations pre-draft and his agent was testing the market. What Cook is doing is he is maximising his leverage while he has it. It's nearly at the end of the road for that leverage and come training camp he will be here in some form. Nothing he has done or is doing deserves the vitriol in your post.

Not even that long anymore. I remember a time when all the spring activity wrapped up in May. Then it went to mini camp being in the first week of June. Now it is second week of June. At which point it is max five weeks to training camp opening. I do think it is a genuine issue when they look at an 18th game, or different rules around coach hiring season.... and multiple other things. They have compressed the calendar so much there really isn't much space left. And I know the individuals involved are well remunerated... but for coaches and administrators it is really their only break of the year. At least players get the time between their season ending and late March when phase 1 activities start.

I think the format this year worked fine. Let's stick with that a bit before we start talking about changes. Was one of the best college football seasons in my memory.

And he will always have that moment. If that play was against the Raiders or the Buccs or the Panthers it probably gets lost in minds. But I think 10, 15 years from now people will still remember that play because it was against the Patriots.

Indeed Bernard was LOSING that camp battle to Dodson. He got hurt, missed the pre-season games in which Dodson struggled and as such they plumped for Bernard almost by default. I don't think it is wise to expect that sort of surprise break out too often, and I'd sure like to hear positive reports on Bishop when the pads come on at camp and when we get to the warm up games, but Bernard is a reminder that sometimes a light can go on very suddenly for a guy.

That isn't what is holding Hendrikson up. The Bengals have cap space - somewhere in the region of $30m of it. The 8th most in the NFL. They have over $60m of cap space next year too.... and sure, it gets a bit trickier next year when they'll be somewhat top heavy, but they already have 53 guys under contract and that much space. The things holding Hendrikson up are 1) the Bengals understandable reluctance to do a long term deal with a guy who turns 31 during 2025 and 2) Mike Brown's reluctance to hand out another big wad of up front cash when he has already given circa $80m to Higgins and Chase this offseason. Their asset allocation isn't the issue. It is, as always with Cincy, CASH not CAP that is the problem.

He used to. Rodgers was abysmal throwing more than 10 air yards last season. His deep ball accuracy has fallen off a cliff. He was still good with the short game so slants are still a weapon but down the field he was about the worst QB in football.

I think the bottom end of your range is more like the ceiling personally. He is a bit boom and bust Keon and I expect that to continue. He will have 2 or 3 big games and then others where he has 1 catch for 19 yards or something. I'd be absolutely fine with a year from Keon that is over 800 yards and 6 or 7 touchdowns. But it wouldn't change the way I feel about the Bills' need for a difference maker on the boundary. To be honest even a 1,000 yard season wouldn't. The same way I always pushed back against the "John Brown had a thousand yard season he is a number 1 receiver" narrative that got some push around here coming out of 2019.

That is a fair point, although Golden was their linebackers coach previously (before a stint at Notre Dame). So you'd think he knows Pratt pretty well. Maybe having been away a couple of years he comes back in and the decline is more noticeable to him and he just says "he's not the same guy he was at his peak".

Special teams is a critical part of this. Let's look at the DL guys who we think are locks for the roster: Ed Oliver - does not play on STs Greg Rousseau - v limited STs just the FG block unit Joey Bosa - does not play on STs TJ Sanders - did almost no STs at South Carolina Landon Jackson - did do some STs at Arkansas and likely will for the Bills UNLESS he earns a heavy role in the DL rotation. Then let's look at the other guys in the picture for roster spots: Deone Walker - did not play special teams at Kentucky Daquan Jones - does not play special teams Dewayne Carter - does not play special teams AJ Epenesa - v limited STs just the FG block unit the past couple of years (did do it more earlier in his career but was not good) Michael Hoecht - been a core STer through his career Larry Ogunjobi - v limited STs just the FG block units Javon Solomon - core STer They are the 12 guys in the mix for maybe 10 roster spots on the DL. If the keep 9 they can probably get away with just one of the backups being a core STs guy. But if they keep 10 or more they are going to need at least a couple of those guys to play teams. There are only 3 teams players there: Hoecht, Solomon and Jackson. Hoecht is suspended for the first 6 weeks which means Soloman is very likely to be on the roster or you are asking Jackson as a rookie to not just play some teams but be a core STer while also, hopefully, working his way into the edge rotation. Is Solomon then at risk when Hoecht comes back? Yes. But it might depend where Landon Jackson is by that point. If he is getting a lot of run with the defense then I think Solomon has a chance to stick.

Slightly surprising in terms of timing. Did have a poor season in 2024 though. If this happened in March I'd not have been as surprised. While I don't think he is a high end MLB he wasn't exactly expensive so having made it to June it's a tad odd.

I would have been interested pre-draft or had we not spent resource on corner. Think the Bills have to roll with what they have at corner now though.

I am arguing if you have more guys to make plays in those end of game situations the tariff of the plays you need Josh to make comes down slightly. It isn't about whether Josh did or didn't make mistakes on the two game enders (and I happen to think he did make errors on both, not massive errors, slight errors) it is about their general ability on those drives to make the plays they needed to make. And when you can't win down the field outside it really has the effect of reducing the play calls available and the yards of the field available to use. And that increases the tariff of difficulty for the Quarterback. Edit: accidental double post

No I don't think it is an either / or proposition either. I wasn't meaning to suggest that. It is just about finding more guys to make those difference making plays.

This is the point. There is a debate here based on the final two offensive plays of the last two years on whether Josh was partly to blame or not at all to blame but that kind of misses the crux of this. Whichever of those camps you are in the conclusion is the same - we don't have enough guys around Josh to make those handful of clutch plays and so it always feels as though he has to be perfect in those scenarios. If you have an elite receiver maybe they catch a ball that isn't perfectly thrown. If you have an elite defender maybe they force a sack that knocks the Chiefs out of FG range rather than just a pressure that gets a stop and holds them to 3. It is ALWAYS those kinds of margins at the end of Bills - Chiefs games. And the Bills have got it done in the regular season but not the playoffs. Another elite guy or two would definitely help.

Everyone keeps saying how good the Steelers D is... I mean it was fine last year but it wasn't a dominant D. 12th in yards against. 8th in points. 17th in yards per play... they were good on 3rd down but they were very much the kind of paper tigers that the Bills D often gets accused of. Very good at keeping bad teams under 17. Not great at keeping good teams under 28. And to finish my point.... that's why I don't see Aaron adding more than maybe one win. He isn't going to out duel Burrow or Jackson or Allen or Mahomes in games that become relatively high scoring (and they actually split with the Ravens and Bengals last season which is not a given they do again) and their problem wasn't lacking a Quarterback to get them to 21 when they were holding lesser teams to scores in the teens. Wilson and Fields were doing that well enough. It feels like another season where their best outcome is a wildcard and a playoff loss.

He is worth more than $10m AAV. Clearly the Bills aren't willing to go to $15m AAV - even with a team friendly version of that contract - so the landing spot is somewhere in the middle. Cook will turn up to training camp. The way the league is set up now hold outs are really not beneficial to players. Could Cook turn up a few days late for camp, or turn up and "hold in" for a few days? Yea that's possible. But what I expect is him to maximise his leverage until his leverage runs out... and it runs out once camp gets serious and eyes start turning to actual football games. I think the likelihood at this stage is that he plays without a new deal this year, but equally there is still a chance that when he starts practicing there is something of a meeting of minds that gives Cook some injury security and allows the Bills some flexibility.... (something that for example is a 3 year deal that's really a one year deal with a big option that activates after the season - think the type of deal they did with Tyrod coming out of 2015).

I think this is right

It was Deshone Kizer in Cleveland. The kid out of ND. San Fran was the first year of Shanahan..... they started Hoyer and then benched him and they traded for Jimmy G in season but I think he probably ended up with like 8 or 9 starts so him?

No doubt. But in my original post I was talking about the Bills on the road scouts which was the subject of the thread and while clearly they have a role on day 1 and 2 picks where you really differentiate how good a team's road scouts are compared to the rest of the NFL is day 3 and UDFAs. I have been pretty vocal on the personnel staff needing to do a better job finding stars.

Okay there isn't the contact that there was in my memory but he doesn't clear from Justin Reid quickly enough. He just wasn't precise enough in his cut. He is late to the spot.

Yea he would. I have said since that play any one of three things happens and the play works. Josh slides a couple of inches, ge can make the throw. Dion holds his block a split second longer, Josh can make the throw. Khalil clears the coverage a split second sooner (he gets kinda tangled with the safety you can see in that shot) and he makes the play. Any of those 3 things happen it's a touchdown. Which is why I don't hate the decision as much as some... the execution was off in 3 small ways that sink the play. They are the margins in the post season. I think Brady actually would have had the ball out underneath before he needed to slide, but if he did decide to take the shot agree he manipulated the pocket better than any QB in history to find those split seconds that make all the difference.

Agree, although Cam is a proven NFL gunner too (he isn't peak Taiwan Jones and Siran Neal but he is solid) which might factor in. Sort of remains to be seen whether teams still value those things at cutdown in the new ST rules era.... but historically a LOT of the guys who get picked off at waiver time by other teams are guys to help at the bottom of the roster on special teams.