Beck Water

Well, we disagree and it sounds as though we're gonna stay disagreeing. It's not a matter of "devalue" and "trash" it's a matter of Cold Hard Football Facts. Cook has had 66 and 63 ypg the last two seasons. That puts him 18th in the NFL for Y/G rushing in '24 and 11th in the NFL for Y/G rushing in '23. Cook simply hasn't come close to the same offensive production numbers as Henry, or as Saquan Barkley for that matter. You seem to want to look at Cook's age vs. Henry's, and his agent's asking price as the only relevant numbers, but teams negotiating contracts are going to look at his performance on the field. I don't doubt that some team will pay - there's always a team that over-pays. But Cook is under contract to the Bills for next season, with the potential for being franchise tagged for lower $ than he wants in a contract right now. Unless he wants to play on a 1 year contract (he might), he and his agent need to come up with more than "pay me $17M per year because I'm talented and younger than Henry".

On the one hand, I agree, Diggs will be trying to show he's a great teammate and a veteran leader. On the other hand, I think Diggs can't help being a problem

Nah. I think he's stump-simple. He's a narcissist with a big ego. He legit thought he "made" Josh as a QB and that he was right and Josh was wrong on every miscue. Diggs was going to play with Stroud and put up just as big or bigger numbers, while Josh with a rag-tag receiver corps and a new OC would falter. That's behind his "You sure?" response to a tweet about Josh not needing Diggs Now that Josh won League MVP and the answer to "You sure?" was unambiguously "Yep" while injured Diggs missed half the season, it's in Digg's self interest to promote his successful years with Josh to say "hey, I played with the guy who was last year's league MVP and put up big numbers year after year, Pick Me!"

Nice narrative, but people on this board who do have some sources say that the 2022 season problems started well before the Hamlin game. If you search, you can find here. Things that have been heard are: -Stef would go after Josh for his perceived mistakes after practices and games to the point where it made the rest of the WR room uncomfortable, and Josh finally had enough and stopped taking it. At one point during that fall, Josh and Diggs relationship was so bad they were reportedly barely talking to one another. -Keep in mind that Josh tore his UCL in the '22 Week 9 Jets game and the initial assessment going around was that he would miss at least as many games as he missed his rookie season (4). Palmer said after the season that it was a worse tear than 2018 where Josh missed 4 games. There's a Marino podcast talking about how it impacted the Bills passing game. Josh was listed as "limited" in a number of practices and there are reports he was limited in throwing (or not throwing) for weeks. -It was said that Diggs was late for meetings and the team gave him a parking spot by the entrance and other special handling to try to keep him in line -Also said that Diggs pulled some stunts that "hurt the team". As far as "Josh played poorly" vs Cinncinnati, please keep in mind that the whole team played poorly - starting with our defense, which looked as though they were on skates. Specifically, Diggs was targeted 10 times and had 4 receptions for 35 yds. While some of were off-target, others of them looked to be catchable balls. There were also balls where it was pretty clear Allen and Diggs weren't on the same page.

If he wants to play like a WR then he needs to work on his freakin' release moves because he can't release like a WR

Did it? Henry contributed 124+ ypg for Baltimore last year - 113 Y/G rushing and another 11.4 receiving yards. Almost half those yards were after contact. Played 17 games and....only 57% of the snaps!!!! Add in 270 yds in the playoffs He's a beast, and stopping him must have kept DCs up at night. Bills called it good, to limit him to 84 yds in the playoffs. I don't mean to dunk on Cook. He's a fine player. But apparently part of his team's argument for why he should become one of the highest paid backs in the NFL is that he's capable of being a 3-down player, but the Bills are limiting his touches to <50% of the snaps, causing him to only rush for 63 ypg vs what he could theoretically contribute if he were allowed to be the 3 down player he's capable of being. When you look at Henry's contributions almost 2x the yards with only ~15% more snaps, that argument kind of gets shredded...like the defenses Henry runs over

"Coming in Hot" is an apt description. Wow. Beane very defensive about the WR room.

Signed with the Rams

Kid is obviously intended as the Lee Smith of the future

Wasn't he drafted by Detroit at Pick 28?

I'm just curious, how much alcohol do you have to consume before making a post like this?

I thought "don't tip picks" meant if you learn the actual pick before it's announced on the air, don't spill the beans?

We'll never know, but a trade up to 12 would have cost A Lot.

That's what I said when the Bills selected Kaiir....

Yes, he was. There is probably something worse than watching the bodiesl of two people you love continue to breathe and eat (kinda) and excrete, while everything that made those people who they are, slips away due to dementia and you're dealing with the wreckage of your loved one's mind. But right now, having watched that go down with my late FIL, I can't think of it. And Flaz was in the thick of it every day as a daily caregiver.

RIP FlAz. A good man went home. He dealt with A Lot for a long time, and did as well with it as anyone could and better than most. He was largely a Shoutbox resident.

You're right about the risk of injury while working out independently, but most of these athletes only take a short time off before they start to work out again in one or another way (rehab or trying to improve themselves) so the few days that voluntary OTAs last don't really matter in the big scheme of things. I think the answer is insurance. They take out insurance to cover the salary they'd lose if they suffer what gets called a "non football injury" while training. I don't think the insurance will cover them jet-skiing or snowboarding or stuff, but it will cover if they tear a muscle or tendon doing workouts to maintain or improve their athletic value. I don't understand about the "draw fines": no team is going to fine an athlete for working out with a private trainer. That might be the spot on the depth chart the draft pick occupies going into training camp, but there's nothing to say he won't occupy a different spot coming out of training camp. See Elam, Kaiir and Benford, Christian. Of course I agree with your point that Cook missing VOLUNTARY OTAs is a non-issue. I think in this first phase, they're just doing strength and conditioning and "dead ball" drills, not even position-specific drills or working with coaches.

@Buffalo716 @HoofHearted

Not a 1st round pick, but Gronkowski missed his Jr year with back surgery, and a number of teams reportedly had him off their boards due to medical.

He sucked with the Rams, which is why they traded him to the Ravens for a pick swap. The thing is, the Rams had him starting and playing almost every snap. The Ravens had him playing only about 1/3 of the snaps, and he actually did OK for them. Achilles are usually a 2 year recovery IF the player can come back. So maybe by the end of the season, Tre was starting to come back? I don't believe the $6.8M thing. That's an "up to", meaning if he hits every target for a bonus.

I think you've cut to the heart of the matter here. McDermott was on the record saying "what he's doing on offense is almost revolutionary". He then proceeded to dissect and neutralize what McDaniel was doing. Other teams paid attention and adapted the principles if not the method. And McDaniel hasn't counterd as yet. It's rather the same thing as Daboll. In 2020, when Josh took a giant step up as a passer, we were shredding teams. In 2021, when Daboll committed to doing what he did in 2021 only more so, the Pittsburgh Steelers totally neutralized us in the season opener and other teams took note. Not immediately, and not all teams could pull it off, but the blueprint was out there and we had some critical losses. We don't know if Daboll would have adjusted in Buffalo 'cuz he left for the Giants, but Dorsey, who kind of took over as "Daboll lite", got solved (and replaced). But it's not because McDaniel is a nerdulent-looking capris wearing pustule that he'll have problems, if he's having problems. It will be because he's been "solved" schematically and hasn't adapted.

? McDaniel played football at Yale. Where he earned a degree in history. Shades of Marv Levy and his masters degree in History from Harvard. Frankly, I think you need a lot of football talent to play football at just about any school beyond HS level, but Yale ain't DI

Certainly, a certain dress code is expected in some businesses. My point is: while a number of football fans commented unfavorably on McDaniel manner of dress and speech, it was pretty clear the team was fine with him when he was taking them to the playoffs for the first time in 6 years then taking them to their best record in 15 years and vieing for the AFC East title in the final game. I think the corollary there is, IF it's true that McDaniel is losing or has lost the locker room, it won't be because he's a capris-wearing nerd - that was fine while they were winning. It will be because they've lost faith in his offense, or they've lost faith he can get them "over the hump" to win a playoff game in cold weather.

How many more months years centuries 'til the draft? What exactly headache has Cook been? He wants to be paid. Good for him. I want a pony. He's under contract next season. He has a choice, play here or don't play.

"Vitamin W" cures just about everything in sports. NFL players on the Dolphins respected McDaniel just fine when they were a team on the rise from 9-8, to 9-8 with a playoff game they came embarrassingly (for the Bills) close to winning with Skylar Thompson under center, to 11-6 and playing the Bills for the AFC East in Week 17. Doesn't matter what the coach looks like, or how he dresses, when you're winning. The Dolphins back-slid from 2023: from 2nd to 22nd in offense, from 11-6 to 8-9. Defense improved, but not enough, and it kind of looked as though McDaniels offense got "solved" a bit. If McDaniel adjusts and the offense returns to form, the locker room will be just fine. If he doesn't adjust, he may have problems holding the team, but it won't be because he's a capri-wearing nerd.