James Cook on IG Live - "15 mill year" EDIT: Scrubbed his IG and Doubled Down on Twitter

[SCBills]

1 hour ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Bills Fans seemingly have issues wrapping their heads around "We can have more than 1 nice thing" since the old Fred Jackson/Marshawn Lynch debate.

 

We should be able to keep Cook AND Johnson. And have Ray Davis in the wings in case of injury.

Johnson likely isn’t going to be dirt cheap again. 
 

So you want the Bills to invest say 15M per in Cook, plus 4-6M per for Johnson and rotate in our recent 4th RD Pick as depth…

 

Thats so much investment at the RB spot, on a team where the RB’s have the advantage of an elite OL and Josh Allen….

[zevo]

Don’t want my team paying  rb big money. He isn’t saquon. He is good but there are plenty of good rbs.

[Kirby Jackson]

8 minutes ago, K D said:

It's clear that he only cares about money. I don't see him posting tweets about how the Bills should be working hard in the off-season to win the Superbowl. In fact he scrubbed his accounts of all things Bills. We don't need guys like that who only care about money. 99.9999% of us will never make $15 mil total in our lives and we are doing fine and he wants that PER SEASON.

 

It's honestly very selfish. People saying "get paid while you can, this has to last you the rest of your life" are out of touch with how much it costs to have a nice life. He already has more than enough to have a great life. I'd be more concerned with how I'm remembered and not the things I'm able to buy. You win the Superbowl and you are now in a position to be considered for the HOF, TV analyst jobs, autograph signings etc. It's short sighted to say give me the money now. Enjoy playing for the Titans or Browns and being completely irrelevant. Tremaine Edmunds only cared about the money too and how quickly we forgot about and moved on from him. RB is a much easier position to replace. Trade him now while he's still worth something imo.

Should he NOT care about the money at his job? Is it “selfish” when I go ask for more money because I’m being paid below the market rate? What does what you make have to do with what he makes? Are you an NFL player? If not, NFL players are paid a percentage of the money that the league makes. If you don’t like how much they make, stop consuming the product driving up the money to the players. Define “more than enough to have a nice life?” Why is that okay for someone else to decide?

[uticaclub]

11 minutes ago, K D said:

It's clear that he only cares about money. I don't see him posting tweets about how the Bills should be working hard in the off-season to win the Superbowl. In fact he scrubbed his accounts of all things Bills. We don't need guys like that who only care about money. 99.9999% of us will never make $15 mil total in our lives and we are doing fine and he wants that PER SEASON.

 

It's honestly very selfish. People saying "get paid while you can, this has to last you the rest of your life" are out of touch with how much it costs to have a nice life. He already has more than enough to have a great life. I'd be more concerned with how I'm remembered and not the things I'm able to buy. You win the Superbowl and you are now in a position to be considered for the HOF, TV analyst jobs, autograph signings etc. It's short sighted to say give me the money now. Enjoy playing for the Titans or Browns and being completely irrelevant. Tremaine Edmunds only cared about the money too and how quickly we forgot about and moved on from him. RB is a much easier position to replace. Trade him now while he's still worth something imo.

If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will care about you either. I think you’re the one who is out of touch by calling the guy selfish. Many players who haven't won a Super Bowl still make it to the Hall of Fame, appear on TV, and participate in autograph signings. His chances of winning a Super Bowl elsewhere are the same as if he stays in Buffalo. Perhaps he believes his team will never get over the hump after being here for three years.

[K D]

Just now, Kirby Jackson said:

Should he NOT care about the money at his job? Is it “selfish” when I go ask for more money because I’m being paid below the market rate? What does what you make have to do with what he makes? Are you an NFL player? If not, NFL players are paid a percentage of the money that the league makes. If you don’t like how much they make, stop consuming the product driving up the money to the players. Define “more than enough to have a nice life?” Why is that okay for someone else to decide?

My argument is when is enough enough? If you were making $5 million at your job (some CEO's) would you demand more and possibly end up in a worse situation career wise just go get to $10-15 million because you heard that's what other guys can get? You already have multiple houses and cars and your family never has to work a day in their lives but yet you want more. I would be very happy to be in a good position making less which is actually something I do in my life. I could make more and have no work-life balance but I choose not to. When you know there's a cap and a limit for the money that goes around and you know asking for more than you need is not going to put you in the best situation to succeed then yes I call that selfish and narrow minded. I'd be very happy with $5 mil and a Superbowl and then that opens way more doors than the highest paid player on a bad team.

7 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will care about you either. I think you’re the one who is out of touch by calling the guy selfish. Many players who haven't won a Super Bowl still make it to the Hall of Fame, appear on TV, and participate in autograph signings. His chances of winning a Super Bowl elsewhere are the same as if he stays in Buffalo. Perhaps he believes his team will never get over the hump after being here for three years.

How much do you need to "take care of yourself?" Cook already has $5 mil and will likely get $10 mil per season over the next 4 years. He will likely have $50 million if he keeps his mouth shut and plays football. But he needs more. Why? What can he do with $65 million that he can't with $50 million? Many high earners who live amazing lives won't make 1/10th of that in their lifetime.

[Kirby Jackson]

2 minutes ago, K D said:

My argument is when is enough enough? If you were making $5 million at your job (some CEO's) would you demand more and possibly end up in a worse situation career wise just go get to $10-15 million because you heard that's what other guys can get? You already have multiple houses and cars and your family never has to work a day in their lives but yet you want more. I would be very happy to be in a good position making less which is actually something I do in my life. I could make more and have no work-life balance but I choose not to. When you know there's a cap and a limit for the money that goes around and you know asking for more than you need is not going to put you in the best situation to succeed then yes I call that selfish and narrow minded. I'd be very happy with $5 mil and a Superbowl and then that opens way more doors than the highest paid player on a bad team.

That isn’t an argument. Players are compensated a percentage of the league’s revenue. If the money that the league makes grows, the money that the players make grows. Who should decide when “enough is enough?” That’s not a thing. The players and owners have collectively bargained to share in the riches of the league. This isn’t about what would be enough for you. It’s also not your place to ever tell anyone else what they should make and when they have enough. That’s not how it works. Lol, no one is asking what you’d be happy making. If you want to make $5M and win a Super Bowl than be good enough to get an NFL contender to pay you that. If not, it’s irrelevant to this and every subsequent conversation regarding contracts.

[Peter]

I choose to believe that this is part of the negotiating process and that he will take something in line with the market.

 

Having said that, I don't like the approach he is taking. Reminds me a bit of the diva with respect to whom we ended up taking a $30 million cap hit.

[BarleyNY]

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

The problem is that you are automatically presuming that Cook will then keep performing well.

Not only is an early age drop off in production due to wear and tear a big factor with RBs, seasons lost to injury are too. Injury can happen to any player at any position, but RBs are injured at a particularly high rate. 

[BeastMaster]

14 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

Should he NOT care about the money at his job? Is it “selfish” when I go ask for more money because I’m being paid below the market rate? What does what you make have to do with what he makes? Are you an NFL player? If not, NFL players are paid a percentage of the money that the league makes. If you don’t like how much they make, stop consuming the product driving up the money to the players. Define “more than enough to have a nice life?” Why is that okay for someone else to decide?

He's allowed to think he deserves more money, and he may even be correct. Problem is he is under contract, and he has now made it public and has apparently gotten upset because people are not happy with his expectations of compensation.

 

He could've handled it like a pro and had his agent bring it to Bills management so they could have worked on coming to a possible agreement behind the scenes...now who knows how him and his agent approach the contract situation and how the Bills respond.

 

Cook just strikes me as a guy who is going to be difficult to deal with from here on out. I don't think this team needs that type of individual on this roster, but obviously the Bills will make the call

[PoundingDog]

11 minutes ago, zevo said:

Don’t want my team paying  rb big money. He isn’t saquon. He is good but there are plenty of good rbs.

Not saying we have to keep Cook. But your logic is going down the slippery road. We are talking about #1 weapon here. Diggs was that guy when he first showed up in Buffalo, but wasn't last year towards the end. So traded and gone. Who's the #1 weapon for the Bills now? Until proven otherwise, you can say it is Cook and he may yet to peak.

 

Very few teams getting rid of their #1 weapon in a year they anticipate to seriously competing for the Superbowl, which I'll argue is always this coming season for the Bills. The Chiefs got rid of Hill and still won because they arguably had 2 #1 weapon in Hill and Kelce at the time. 

[DrDawkinstein]

23 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Johnson likely isn’t going to be dirt cheap again. 
 

So you want the Bills to invest say 15M per in Cook, plus 4-6M per for Johnson and rotate in our recent 4th RD Pick as depth…

 

Thats so much investment at the RB spot, on a team where the RB’s have the advantage of an elite OL and Josh Allen….

 

We dont know what Johnson will cost. And I literally have a post in here detailing exactly what I want to pay Cook that is well short of $15M.

 

In your completely made up, (almost unreasonably) extreme example, I'd agree that's too much investment at the RB spot.

 

I think it can be done for less.

[ddaryl]

5 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

 Who should decide when “enough is enough?” 

The Fans !!!!  we are the cash cow!

[K D]

1 minute ago, Kirby Jackson said:

That isn’t an argument. Players are compensated a percentage of the league’s revenue. If the money that the league makes grows, the money that the players make grows. Who should decide when “enough is enough?” That’s not a thing. The players and owners have collectively bargained to share in the riches of the league. This isn’t about what would be enough for you. It’s also not your place to ever tell anyone else what they should make and when they have enough. That’s not how it works. Lol, no one is asking what you’d be happy making. If you want to make $5M and win a Super Bowl than be good enough to get an NFL contender to pay you that. If not, it’s irrelevant to this and every subsequent conversation regarding contracts.

When it comes to money there is a point where more does not improve your life. It's the point of diminishing returns. When you are young and dumb you think more is always better but that's not always true. Is Tremaine Edmonds happy to be on the worst team in the league so he could have a few extra mil? Maybe he is but I doubt it. You can only have so many houses and cars and then it gets annoying. I have to hire people to take care of houses I don't even have time to go to. Should I work harder and have no time for my family to have another house I won't go to because I'm so busy? There's nothing else to buy eventually and I definitely don't have $50 mil. It's hard to imagine to people that work hard to scrape by, we have all been there. But hopefully you get to the point where you don't need anymore and so you cut back or retire. Does Cook really need to force his way off the team to get a little more than his market rate? I think he will regret it. I'd rather win

[Kirby Jackson]

4 minutes ago, BeastMaster said:

He's allowed to think he deserves more money, and he may even be correct. Problem is he is under contract, and he has now made it public and has apparently gotten upset because people are not happy with his expectations of compensation.

 

He could've handled it like a pro and had his agent bring it to Bills management so they could have worked on coming to a possible agreement behind the scenes...now who knows how him and his agent approach the contract situation and how the Bills respond.

 

Cook just strikes me as a guy who is going to be difficult to deal with from here on out. I don't think this team needs that type of individual on this roster, but obviously the Bills will make the call

He has a contract and leverage. When you are overpaid in the NFL, they rip your contract up and don’t pay you. Are we okay with that? The leverage you have is when you’re a good value and can hold out. Cook is up for a raise and a significant one. Now he’s pushing the Bills to get something done.

 

Why anyone gets upset about what he wants? That concept is beyond me. We make what our market and skill set warrants. I also don’t understand how him wanting market value makes him of lesser value to the team? He was the best player on the field for the Bills last game and I’m sure he wanted $15M at that point. You didn’t know about it then. So now that you know that he isn’t the kind of guy that you want? Help me understand that? My concern is winning and he has been an important piece.

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, Kirby Jackson said:

He has a contract and leverage. When you are overpaid in the NFL, they rip your contract up and don’t pay you. Are we okay with that? The leverage you have is when you’re a good value and can hold out. Cook is up for a raise and a significant one. Now he’s pushing the Bills to get something done.

 

Why anyone gets upset about what he wants? That concept is beyond me. We make what our market and skill set warrants. I also don’t understand how him wanting market value makes him of lesser value to the team? He was the best player on the field for the Bills last game and I’m sure he wanted $15M at that point. You didn’t know about it then. So now that you know that he isn’t the kind of guy that you want? Help me understand that? My concern is winning and he has been an important piece.

 

Buncha bootlickers in this thread, trying to line the pockets of billionaire owners who dont work for their money.

[K D]

2 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Buncha bootlickers in this thread, trying to line the pockets of billionaire owners who dont work for their money.

I don't care about the owners. There's a cap to who we can pay. If you pay a lot for a 2-down RB that's less money for a pass rush or WR or other positions.

[nosejob]

I like Cook, but not if he's gonna be an ass on social media. That's a big hell no in my book.

 

That being said I don't think anyone has mentioned that along with Johnson and Davis we have Frank Gore jr. who I think looked great last summer....

 

and between those 3 I would bet there's less potential TD drops than Cook has already had.

 

He either signs a reasonable deal or he goes to the Giants as part of a deal for Dexter.😉

[Kirby Jackson]

3 minutes ago, K D said:

When it comes to money there is a point where more does not improve your life. It's the point of diminishing returns. When you are young and dumb you think more is always better but that's not always true. Is Tremaine Edmonds happy to be on the worst team in the league so he could have a few extra mil? Maybe he is but I doubt it. You can only have so many houses and cars and then it gets annoying. I have to hire people to take care of houses I don't even have time to go to. Should I work harder and have no time for my family to have another house I won't go to because I'm so busy? There's nothing else to buy eventually and I definitely don't have $50 mil. It's hard to imagine to people that work hard to scrape by, we have all been there. But hopefully you get to the point where you don't need anymore and so you cut back or retire. Does Cook really need to force his way off the team to get a little more than his market rate? I think he will regret it. I'd rather win

I’m not sure you’re following. Enough is different for everyone and the market decides when it will not meet someone’s demands. I don’t know if Tremaine Edmunds is happy. I don’t know him. 
 

I can speak for myself only. Statistically, I do well compared to most Americans. I’m also significantly underpaid for the value that I provide. Both of those are true. I don’t look at it as “you should be happy that you can provide a nice life.” I look at it as, “I’m worth so much more than I make and should get that while I can.” I’m currently in the marketplace now and have offers for significantly more money and equity. Should I just be happy with what I’m making? It’s the same thing!! 
 

There’a NEVER a time where there isn’t more money to spend. Maybe his dream is to build a business empire like Shaq? Maybe he wants to buy an island? Whatever, it is, who cares? It isn’t up to anyone else to decide when someone has had enough. When the demand is no longer there for him, or anyone else, at a particular price, the market stops paying it. 

9 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Buncha bootlickers in this thread, trying to line the pockets of billionaire owners who dont work for their money.

Lol, seriously 

[K D]

2 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

I’m not sure you’re following. Enough is different for everyone and the market decides when it will not meet someone’s demands. I don’t know if Tremaine Edmunds is happy. I don’t know him. 
 

I can speak for myself only. Statistically, I do well compared to most Americans. I’m also significantly underpaid for the value that I provide. Both of those are true. I don’t look at it as “you should be happy that you can provide a nice life.” I look at it as, “I’m worth so much more than I make and should get that while I can.” I’m currently in the marketplace now and have offers for significantly more money and equity. Should I just be happy with what I’m making? It’s the same thing!! 
 

There’a NEVER a time where there isn’t more money to spend. Maybe his dream is to build a business empire like Shaq? Maybe he wants to buy an island? Whatever, it is, who cares? It isn’t up to anyone else to decide when someone has had enough. When the demand is no longer there for him, or anyone else, at a particular price, the market stops paying it. 

Cooks market rate is $10 mil per according to Spotrac. He's asking for $15 mil. That's more than his value. But hey go to the Browns or the Titans, good luck being a rich irrelevant player.

 

Shaq is one of the most depressed people on the planet according to himself. He has a 40,000 sqft house and nobody in it because his wife and family left him. He's talked about it on multiple podcasts.

[uticaclub]

39 minutes ago, K D said:

My argument is when is enough enough? If you were making $5 million at your job (some CEO's) would you demand more and possibly end up in a worse situation career wise just go get to $10-15 million because you heard that's what other guys can get? You already have multiple houses and cars and your family never has to work a day in their lives but yet you want more. I would be very happy to be in a good position making less which is actually something I do in my life. I could make more and have no work-life balance but I choose not to. When you know there's a cap and a limit for the money that goes around and you know asking for more than you need is not going to put you in the best situation to succeed then yes I call that selfish and narrow minded. I'd be very happy with $5 mil and a Superbowl and then that opens way more doors than the highest paid player on a bad team.

How much do you need to "take care of yourself?" Cook already has $5 mil and will likely get $10 mil per season over the next 4 years. He will likely have $50 million if he keeps his mouth shut and plays football. But he needs more. Why? What can he do with $65 million that he can't with $50 million? Many high earners who live amazing lives won't make 1/10th of that in their lifetime.

It's called maximizing your earning potential. While it's reasonable to debate whether or not to pay a player, especially a running back, calling someone selfish for trying to secure the best possible deal for themselves is quite misguided.

3 minutes ago, K D said:

Cooks market rate is $10 mil per according to Spotrac. He's asking for $15 mil. That's more than his value. But hey go to the Browns or the Titans, good luck being a rich irrelevant player.

 

Shaq is one of the most depressed people on the planet according to himself. He has a 40,000 sqft house and nobody in it because his wife and family left him. He's talked about it on multiple podcasts.

He’s alone because Kobe (RIP) called him out for cheating on his wife and he told his kids to get jobs.

Edited February 13 by uticaclub