Straight Hucklebuck

Couple of WRs that were horrible - TJ Graham and Marquez Stevenson Vlad Ducasse Cyrus Kuaonjio Bobby Hart

Derek Fine was absolutely atrocious as well. 25 year old rookie who ran a 4.85 40-yard dash, 29” vertical. 4th Rounder!

Ed Wang was one of the worst draft picks I’ve ever seen this team make. Nate Peterman for sure. Another Buddy Nix era player Duke Williams was terrible. Torell Troupe.

I mean scrubbing your Instagram is a standard play, but it’s not like the Bills have screwed him over. This is the first offseason where they can extend him. $15M is not outrageous. The market is always being reset. If $10M - $12M is palatable for most fans, then $15M isn’t far off. The bigger interest for me is what is the backup plan if those negotiations go poorly - I just don’t want the pivot to be Ty Johnson and Ray Davis are good enough. And then the second part is the philosophy of the Bills this offseason. Can they both swing for the fences and extend their own players after reworking the cap.

Year over year improvement of the players must be stagnating. Training goals are not being met.

Right, I'm the only Bills fan that has questions about the probability that Sean McDermott wins a Super Bowl as Bills HC.

That's what looming - extending Cook, Shakir, Rousseau, Bernard and Benford.

Yup - this is the decision on Beane this offseason. Their cap and the players already under contract for 2025 would enable the Bills to effectively run it back with the same group plus the draft class. There really is no linchpin pending FA. But I do think concessions will need to be made on the roster with some of “our guys” if Beane is to land a better WR or DE. Greg Tompsett said that if the Bills pulled every lever they could in contracts and restructured everybody they could it would result in $72M in cap space. So what’s realistic? $25M with Beane saying he keeps $3M - $5M set aside for injuries and trades? I just draw the line at Hampton, Johnson, Judkins, Henderson, Sampson (assuming Jeanty is long gone). There are two pages of guys that all have similar grades so if other people want to draw the line somewhere else, cool. I would not draft another 4th Round RB, pair him with Ray Davis and Ty Johnson and expect as good of a running game. For me - the line has to be one of those Top 5-6 running backs before the talent and athleticism drops off. I will definitely be tuned into the Combine to see how these players stack up offensively.

I agree that I don’t see Ray Davis near Cook’s level and do not want him as anything more than a sub-package back. If Cook or the Bills really moved on this offseason, again I’d want that premium investment into one of the drafts top backs (R2 preferably). Drafting an RB in the 5th and pairing that player with Ray Davis and Ty Johnson is a good solution for production, only money.

I kind of think it’s year by year because it’s tied with Allen’s peak window. Next year is his age 29 season. You see some posts about McDermott getting 2-3 more years, which obviously takes Allen into his 30’s. With the contracts this team has allocated already, the 2025 roster can be very similar to the 2024 roster. Beane and McDermott can effectively run it back if they deem behind closed doors that the Bills are close. Publicly, that’s Beane and McDermott’s stance in the end of year press conferences.

7-7 career in the Playoffs. 7-6 in the Playoffs with Allen. 0-5 on the road in the Playoffs. 5-1 in the Wildcard, 2-3 in the Divisional, 0-2 in the AFCCG, 0-4 now against the Chiefs in the Playoffs. You'd think it has to happen sooner than later, but that's just me. You do have Josh Allen. I would think there would be interested candidates for the position. Reading the comments, over 50% of the fanbase is happy to keep McDermott indefinitely regardless of Playoff results. And the reasoning for this mostly seems to be who else are you going to get. Strange to me that a former Defensive Coordinator is entitled to Allen's entire career without making a Super Bowl but I guess we’re just waiting for one magic year with the 2nd best QB on the planet.

Yes Cray - again not burning a pitchfork here, just some of the weird issues that came up this season as the @Thrivefourfive post originally talked about weird things that happen. Also, you pin this on his assistants - it should be noted McDermott is the HEAD coach.

From 2024: 9-men on the field for the final punt against LA The timeout called at the end of the Rams game 3 passes verses 3 runs at the end of the Texans game The Hail Mary defense against the Jets that made that game a nail biter all the way to the end

I have no anger towards Cook for this. I think the Bills will extend him this offseason. He's easily the best RB in the McDermott/Beane era Bills. An idea for the Bills is to not just run it back with Ty Johnson and Ray Davis, but draft one of the elite RBs in this draft - Hampton, Johnson, Judkins, Henderson, Sampson and see if you can create an advantage with a better 1-2 pairing. I know that comes with immediate downsides - a pick that doesn't go to the defense, Cook is not a full time player, you just drafted Ray Davis a year ago, investing in running back. But what has Joe Brady shown us so far? We run the ball to control clock and minimize turnovers. I don't think this will happen as I think the Bills mostly just try to keep their core together, so I expect Cook extended and Ty Johnson re-signed.

So realistically, if the Bills are -$11M in cap space now, how much space can they open? And then after that - what is their approach - just try and bring back the 2024 Bills? Extend Cook, Benford, Rousseau, Shakir, Bernard. Re-sign Hollins, Gilliam, Hamlin, Morris Because the trade route for a DE. Garrett has cap hits of $19M and $20M, Crosby has cap hits of $27M and $24M. So you extend either guy, how are you getting those cap hits down low enough and still paying all those internal FAs and extensions. I guess this is where this offseason is hard to gauge for me - fans want the playmaking DE, but Beane talks about how they’re close and they just need to kick the door down.

He’s on a reasonable deal - 3 years, $21M.

Thanks man.

Wow, I think that would definitely get it done! I was thinking 2nd and a player.

That's the conversation at the heart of this offseason. On here it's how much stomach do the fans have for roster surgery to go after a difference maker(s). Ultimately, it's going to be reading between the lines and looking at OBD history for us fans to guess what Brandon Beane will do.

Yeah that’s technically true - but what has there been to work with? 2018 30-year old LeSean McCoy, Taiwan Jones, Chris Ivory 2019 Gore, Singletary, Yeldon 2020 Singletary, Moss, Jones 2021 Singletary, Moss, Jones, Breida 2022 Singletary, Cook, Hines 2023 Cook, Harris, Johnson, Murray, Fournette 2024 Cook, Johnson, Davis I think it’s clear Cook is the best RB the Beane Bills have had. You’re right though - up until now the model has not been extend the running back - only one logical before Cook would have been Singletary. Moss stunk right away.

This is theme I’ve gathered so far this offseason. There is a healthy percentage of fans that want to keep everything the same. Sal Capaccio and Joe Marino want to keep everything the same - extend all the logical Bills coming due, bring back Mack Hollins, Ty Johnson, Reggie Gilliam, Reid Ferguson, Quintin Morris, etc. They were encouraged by Brandon Beane’s End of Season Press Conference and believe the team is close and agrees with just keep kicking the door down. There is another segment of fans in favor of some roster surgery to acquire difference makers, accepting that some Bills might need to go to make that happen. I think @BillsVet is right - the FO will stay on their usual path - extended and re-signing their own players.

That’s not what’s happening here. 1. Cook is already going to be compensated for his performance as he is eligible for $5.6M in 2025 because of escalators being achieved. So he’s out of that usual $1.5M - $2.0M range. 2. Who doesn’t like James Cook? He’s one of the few players in the 2nd Round that Beane has hit on. Imagine that, you take a player with NFL pedigree from a champion D1 SEC school who is actually athletic and not just a Ryan Denney lunchpail guy and it works. 3. I think the Bills will extend him. That’s been Beane’s entire model. Draft, develop and retain. 4. Restructure your existing contracts - and extend Cook, Bernard, Benford, Shakir, Rousseau - is there money available for any of these difference making DE? The Bills are -$11M now (29th) and can open up reasonable room with a series of restructures. Mike Ginnitti of Spotrac has said it will be difficult for the Bills to pull off the Garrett trade and that he expects other teams with more resources to blow the Bills out of the water for Garrett and Crosby. 5. Building on point 4, sounds like a healthy percentage of fans are happy to just run it back with the same offense and effectively defense. I’d just point out the Bills were +24 in turnover margin, +28 including Playoffs. In addition to the others mentioned above, bring back Hollins, Ty Johnson, Reggie Gilliam. Ray Davis showed everyone enough. So the backfield stays the same for the foreseeable future. I kind of like taking one of these athletic RBs - Hampton, Judkins, Henderson, Johnson, Hampton, having Cook play out his $5.6M and reevaluating in 2026. 6. The Franchise Tag exists 7. James Cook is going to sit out his age 25-26 year old season ala Le’Veon Bell? 8. We’re just reacting and throwing out ideas man, relax. Obviously in a Brady offense the running backs touch the ball a lot and the staff worked hard to find the perfect balance of touches for all three. I don’t need to open my eyes, I watched all the games and I saw Cook, I saw his speed. We all saw what it looked like with Frank Gore, Devin Singletary and Zack Moss. We see the speed makes a difference.

I think a few things. 1. 2019 was not hindsight - There were athletes at the WR position to be had in the Draft. The Bills were coming off 2018 with UDRFA Robert Foster functioning as the #1 deep threat, Kelvin Benjamin, Zay Jones, Andre Holmes, Jeremy Kerley, Ray Ray McCloud, Deonte Thompson, McKenzie makes his first appearance off waivers. The worst WR room in the NFL. Again - Cole Beasley was 30 years old and a nice slot player for the Cowboys. John Brown was 29/30 and again, nice player, good not great production. Brown was gone by after 2020 (he really only gave the Bills 2019) and Beasley gave the Bills two good years before age sapped him. So this idea that this "investment" barred the Bills from drafting a WR in 2019 is wrong. The depth chart was still pathetic after the "investment". And who was the Bills leading WR in the Houston Playoff game again? Oh, that's right Duke Williams. The FO completely whiffed on Cody Ford, it started right away in Training Camp when he had to move inside to Guard. 2. "By your own admission, the 2022 offseason is where you’re saying it felt like they gave up. This is hardly evidence that they gave up?" No, the point I knew they had given up was signing Emmanuel Sanders to be the #2 WR in 2021 FA. He was 33-years old and was talking about retirement before the Bills signed him. 3. After Sanders immediately retired after the season in 2021 (shocking development there) Gabe Davis was installed as the clear cut #2. The 2022 season with McKenzie as the #3, Davis as the #2, Diggs at #1 was again a neon flashing light that the Bills did not have enough at WR. Scored 10-points against the Bengals. So what did they do? Brandon Beane made excuses for Gabe Davis in the post season press conference about hurting his ankle in Week 2 and we brought back the same group to lead the way in 2023, this time with Dalton Kincaid and the two-Tight End attack now featured. So no, I am not going to crush the Bills for not drafting Puka Nucua, but they did nothing at WR but bring in Trent Sherfield, Deonty Harty and draft Justin Shorter. Hence the chain reaction I talked about. 4. I know getting two #1's is not standard operating procedure in the NFL. And certainly getting AJ Brown or Metcalf or McLaurin even in 2019 changes history when it comes to acquiring Diggs, but this is what we're discussing now - namely - how do the Bills devise something that catches the league by surprise? Now the Head Coach you're advocating for is asking the same question as the local media which has been on the radio everyday blasting a train horn for 3-years - where are all the playmakers? How do you defend this: Drafts - Ray Ray McCloud (6th), Austin Proehl (7th), Gabe Davis (4th), Isaiah Hodgins (6th), Marquez Stephenson (6th), Khalil Shakir (5th), Justin Shorter (5th), Keon Coleman (2nd). It took until 2024 for the Bills to use a selection higher than the 4th Round to draft a WR with Josh Allen as their QB. Six complete seasons into his career. How could the investment into WR be any smaller realistically than this? Our GM is so confident about his strategy he trades with his arch nemesis and tells you its the best decision for the Bills - then says he was disappointed?

Couple thoughts: 1. Cooks contract for 2025 has already been escalated to $5.265M based on performance. So could they sweeten it further for one year to keep the peace, maybe, but he’s already being compensated for his production. 2. He’s not going to pull a Le’Veon Bell and sit out his age 25-26 season. 3. If the Bills really did move Cook, which I highly doubt based on how McDermott talked about him at the season ending press conference, then I want the Bills to move on right. And that means no Ray Davis can’t be your #1 RB. No Ty Johnson is not a starter. With so many top end RBs in this Draft I would want the team to draft one in their first 3-picks. 4. Looking at that 2022 Draft, if you sort by RB, there are other backs that have had similar levels of total production.

https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/positions/RB/1/2025