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

[All_Pro_Bills]

8 hours ago, Ray Stonada said:

If Knox got what he got, Cook is worth 15/year for where he stands among backs. That was a great season.

“I don’t pay running backs” sounds tough coming from armchair warriors.

I think the conclusion of this comparison is the Bills overpaid in the Knox deal. 

With Cook the factors are his performance, market price, and replaceability. And negotiating in public isn't going to help James.

The way I look at it the only must keep guy under any circumstances is Josh Allen. And for cap purposes his deal needs restructuring.

[finn]

On 3/5/2025 at 9:25 PM, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

Eagles aren't missing two top-end WR and a top 1 OL

 

Bills are.

 

Big difference.

 

I can see they're missing WRs, but one top OL? Who do you see as deficient? Seems the Bills need a DE, DT, CB, WR, and a safety to develop. OL isn't even on the list, unless you think they should cut Edwards? 

 

Every team's fan base wants their team to be just like that year's Super Bowl winner. But the Bills are better off sticking with what worked for them last year, at least on offense, particularly their balanced attack. Two major tweaks: Allen runs less and they get themselves a WR to stretch the field, say Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton. Even if Kincaid, Samuels, and Coleman have another disappointing year, the offense will still be potent enough to go all the way--IF they don't have to carry McDermott's defense. 

 

What they need to do on defense is closer to the Eagles model: a pass rusher, two big tackles, a shut-down corner, and a top-shelf safety. That's a lot to ask, but it can be done. Sign Josh Sweat, draft the best available safety with your first-round pick, go DT with your two second-round picks, and trade your two fours to move up in the third for the best CB still available to develop behind Douglas, whom you sign to a one-year deal. Voila: a much better defense.

 

Then somehow persuade McDermott to dump his bend-don't-break, play-not-to-lose defense, at least for the playoffs. 

[DrDawkinstein]

11 hours ago, Low Positive said:

 

You're discounting how good James Cook was this year because you want to make a point about not paying RBs. He made something out of nothing many times, and has the burst to turn 10-yard gains into long TDs. That TD against SF that I linked above is about a 5 yard gain with Singletary. He was the Bills' best offensive skill player outside of Josh Allen. I don't know that he's worth 15 million, but he's not easily replaceable. 

 

And mind you, he did this MULTIPLE times this season. Multiple runs of 45+ yards that he took to the house. We havent had a playmaker/gamechanger like that at the RB position in decades. Can change the entire game on one play, one run.

 

Additionally, a big change this year as he has aged/grown/built up into an NFL player, he is running through contact more. As a matter of fact, he had a few TDs this year where he ran into and through contact and plowed his way into the endzone all on his own.

 

Agreed he's our best Offensive weapon after Josh. Keep him here, keep him happy.

2 hours ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

And negotiating in public isn't going to help James.

 

 

You guys keep saying this.

 

His social media posts do not matter at all. AT ALL. Beane and the FO do not care that he posted 3 emojis this week. Only sensitive fans do.

[All_Pro_Bills]

37 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

You guys keep saying this.

 

His social media posts do not matter at all. AT ALL. Beane and the FO do not care that he posted 3 emojis this week. Only sensitive fans do.

I think it matters because he's unequivocally and publicly set his contract demands at $15M per season. If you make those statements and then end up taking less it makes you look like you "lost" by agreeing to less. Its just a bad practice. I wonder if Cook agrees his social media comments don't mean anything. If so, why post them at all? Talk to your agent, talk to the GM. Sit down and discuss your contract privately. I agree that telling you and me doesn't matter and we can't impact what he gets or doesn't get so why tell us anything?

 

[Low Positive]

55 minutes ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

I think it matters because he's unequivocally and publicly set his contract demands at $15M per season. If you make those statements and then end up taking less it makes you look like you "lost" by agreeing to less. Its just a bad practice. I wonder if Cook agrees his social media comments don't mean anything. If so, why post them at all? Talk to your agent, talk to the GM. Sit down and discuss your contract privately. I agree that telling you and me doesn't matter and we can't impact what he gets or doesn't get so why tell us anything?

 

Because he's GenZ and they post everything on social media? Also, keeping those discussion behind closed doors gives the team all the leverage. Why would he do that? RBs have been arguing for higher pay on social media for a few seasons now. Remember Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley threatening to hold out two offseasons ago? They are, as a group, advocating for higher pay for all of them. All because GMs, as a group, decided about 5-6 years ago to not pay RBs because Jerry just had to overpay Ezekiel Elliott.

[Mat68]

Just now, Low Positive said:

Because he's GenZ and they post everything on social media? Also, keeping those discussion behind closed doors gives the team all the leverage. Why would he do that? RBs have been arguing for higher pay on social media for a few seasons now. Remember Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley threatening to hold out two offseasons ago? They are, as a group, advocating for higher pay for all of them. All because GMs, as a group, decided about 5-6 years ago to not pay RBs because Jerry just had to overpay Ezekiel Elliott.

I think he feels he needs to fight.  Buffalo came to Benard and Shakir with deals.  He wants similar treatment.  The number was likley closer to Benard and he wants more.  Saquan going from 12 to 20 imo helps his position.  Younger, better medical history, and less carries.  

[Gregg]

I hope they can sign Cook. With the exception of Allen, he is the best player on offense the Bills have.

[Mr. WEO]

14 hours ago, Low Positive said:

 

You're discounting how good James Cook was this year because you want to make a point about not paying RBs. He made something out of nothing many times, and has the burst to turn 10-yard gains into long TDs. That TD against SF that I linked above is about a 5 yard gain with Singletary. He was the Bills' best offensive skill player outside of Josh Allen. I don't know that he's worth 15 million, but he's not easily replaceable. 

 

He's a good back for sure--I haven't said otherwise.

 

If the Eagles didn't decide to reward Barkley with a new contract right after he signed his previous one, no one here would be saying Cook should get 15 million.

 

The Eagles gave Barkley a thank you note.  They didn't have to, they just felt like it. 

 

11 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

That's not how things work. 

 

The league and player's agents didn't look at Tyreek Hill's deal and say "Well, that's crazy. We'll just ignore it and stick to the numbers before it". The WR market exploded. For every WR at his level and under it. 

 

The Quarterback market keeps rising and rising based on recent contracts. At one point Josh was the 2nd highest QB in NFL History. Now he's the 6th highest QB contract in the league, below players like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert.

 

Any time a new top contract is made at a positional group, the contracts of everyone goes up. Again, James Cook isn't going to get 21m. But he isn't going to be a guy who gets only half of that anymore. 6m less, his asking price, seems about right now.

 

The problem with that argument is that Josh is the best QB in the NFL.   Cook is a decent /good back. 

29 minutes ago, Gregg said:

I hope they can sign Cook. With the exception of Allen, he is the best player on offense the Bills have.

 

that's a problem of their own making.

[BillsFanForever19]

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

The problem with that argument is that Josh is the best QB in the NFL.   Cook is a decent /good back. 

 

Once again - you completely miss the point.

 

Yes, Josh Allen is the best QB in the NFL... who is now being paid less than QB's such as Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, and Dak Prescott among others.

 

Gabe Davis, coming off of a bad year for us last season got a 13m a year annual contract. 

 

Wanna know why that is? It's because of market resets based on new contracts at the top. And also a rise in salary cap league wide pushing the value up of everyone.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

He's a good back for sure--I haven't said otherwise.

 

No. But what you are do is downplaying him from what he is to just a decent every day RB. 

 

Without James Cook's abilities, which go beyond that of your average "good" RB - we would have been out of the Playoffs before we were and wouldn't have been in the position to have Dalton Kincaid cost us the game.

 

He's a 2 Time Pro Bowlers who has become a star in this league. Yet you want to argue that if he hit the market, his value would be more than 30% less of Barkley's.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

that's a problem of their own making.

 

And? That means nothing as far as what his value would be on an open market.

Edited Friday at 08:34 PM by BillsFanForever19

[Magox]

Good organizations don't make habits of letting go good, young players because they don't want to pay fair market value.   That's for the loser ball clubs.

[Doc Brown]

4 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

Once again - you completely miss the point.

 

Yes, Josh Allen is the best QB in the NFL... who is now being paid less than QB's such as Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, and Dak Prescott among others.

 

Gabe Davis, coming off of a bad year for us last season got a 13m a year annual contract. 

 

Wanna know why that is? It's because of market resets based on new contracts at the top. And also a rise in salary cap league wide pushing the value up of everyone.

The contracts really only work that way with QB's for some reason.  It's such an important position that once you think you have your guy you have to pay them top of the market franchise money.  By your logic Bernard would've been paid more than the $17m/year that Baun just signed for.

[Low Positive]

4 minutes ago, Magox said:

Good organizations don't make habits of letting go good, young players because they don't want to pay fair market value.   That's for the loser ball clubs.

I'm in favor of signing James Cook, but just to play devil's advocate here's Dalvin Cook's stats. He fell off that RB cliff with a thud.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CookDa01.htm

[Magox]

3 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

I'm in favor of signing James Cook, but just to play devil's advocate here's Dalvin Cook's stats. He fell off that RB cliff with a thud.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CookDa01.htm

Right, but it wasn't until his 7th season until where he saw that drop off and that is because he suffered an injury and didn't play hardly at all.

 

Plus he had a lot more wear on those treads. Cook is going into his 4th season.

[Mr. WEO]

22 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

Once again - you completely miss the point.

 

Yes, Josh Allen is the best QB in the NFL... who is now being paid less than QB's such as Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, and Dak Prescott among others.

 

Gabe Davis, coming off of a bad year for us last season got a 13m a year annual contract. 

 

Wanna know why that is? It's because of market resets based on new contracts at the top. And also a rise in salary cap league wide pushing the value up of everyone.

 

 

No. But what you are do is downplaying him from what he is to just a decent every day RB. 

 

Without James Cook's abilities, which go beyond that of your average "good" RB - we would have been out of the Playoffs before we were and wouldn't have been in the position to have Dalton Kincaid cost us the game.

 

He's a 2 Time Pro Bowlers who has become a star in this league. Yet you want to argue that if he hit the market, his value would be more than 30% less of Barkley's.

 

 

And? That means nothing as far as what his value would be on an open market.

 

The point is that Barkley was willing to take under 13 million a year to sign with Philly.  He had a top 3 year all time and they decided to reward him for that alone with the new contract.  Cook is a top 10 RB, no doubt.  I just don't think Barkley's very unique situation resets the market for all backs.  Had the Eagles signed him for 20 million to come to the Eagles last year, then sure, that would have reset the market.  

 

Davis had the second best year of his career last season--it wasn't "a bad year".  He's getting same as Shakir now is getting, and he was far more productive for the Bills.

 

If the Bills resign Cook at 15 mil, then the market was reset.  If they don't they they don't believe it was.

Edited Friday at 08:56 PM by Mr. WEO

[BillsFanForever19]

19 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

By your logic Bernard would've been paid more than the $17m/year that Baun just signed for.

 

How do you figure that's by my logic? I'm not arguing Cook should top Barkley. The QB and WR market resets I pointed to were just to illustrate the point that a top contract at a position resets the market and raises contracts for other playmakers at the position relevant to that contract, going forward.

 

If anything, the Bernard/Baun comparison furthers that point. Baun is coming off a 1st Team All Pro year and got 17m annually on paper. Bernard got 12.5m annually on paper, 26% less.

 

Barkley is making 21m annually on paper. Cook's asking price is 15m. Which is even more than the Baun/Bernard conversation at 29% less. 

[ColoradoBills]

11 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

Davis had the second best year of his career last season--it wasn't "a bad year".  He's getting same as Shakir now is getting, and he was far more productive for the Bills.

 

That is your opinion.  Josh had his lowest INT because he was throwing the ball to Shakir and not Davis.

Last year Shakir had 1 INT in 100 targets.  Last 2 seasons with Bills Davis had 12 INTs on 174 targets.

That along with the drops is why Davis is not on the team.

[Doc Brown]

2 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

How do you figure that's by my logic? I'm not arguing Cook should top Barkley. The QB and WR market resets I pointed to were just to illustrate the point that a top contract at a position resets the market and raises contracts for other playmakers at the position relevant to that contract, going forward.

 

If anything, the Bernard/Baun comparison furthers that point. Baun is coming off a 1st Team All Pro year and got 17m annually on paper. Bernard got 12.5m annually on paper, 26% less.

 

Barkley is making 21m annually on paper. Cook's asking price is 15m. Which is even more than the Baun/Bernard conversation at 29% less. 

You're basically saying that contracts rise every year with inflation of the salary cap and I think most people get that.  I'm interested if the Rams give Kyreen Williams an extension as he's put up similar stats to Cook but is an every down back.  He had over 100 more carries than Cook last year.  If he gets around $17m per year than around $15m should be about the range Cook is extended for imo.

[BillsFanForever19]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

You're basically saying that contracts rise every year with inflation of the salary cap and I think most people get that.  I'm interested if the Rams give Kyreen Williams an extension as he's put up similar stats to Cook but is an every down back.  He had over 100 more carries than Cook last year.  If he gets around $17m per year than around $15m should be about the range Cook is extended for imo.

 

The discussion you came into where I was using these points was one in which Mr. Weo argues Saquon Barkley's contract means nothing to James Cook.

 

I adamantly disagree. Whatever number Cook signs for with whomever he signs with, will be higher than it would have been without that contract at the top.

 

It takes his 15m number from "that's insane" to pretty spot on. 

[Doc Brown]

8 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

The discussion you came into where I was using these points was one in which Mr. Weo argues Saquon Barkley's contract means nothing to James Cook.

 

I adamantly disagree. Whatever number Cook signs for with whomever he signs with, will be higher than it would have been without that contract at the top.

 

It takes his 15m number from "that's insane" to pretty spot on. 

I agree.  With the extension Barkley will be two years out so he'll be playing at $16.5m per season.  Cook would be around $12.5m per season if they give him a 4 year $60m extension.  Whether Beane thinks that's too much for a player that only plays around 50% of the snaps we shall see.

[Pete]

So Bernard, Reid, Shakir, and Roos stayed quiet and got paid.  Taking notes James?  IMO James pissed off Bills Brass going to instagram and twitter lobbying for raise.  He should have ignored Dalvin, and kept his mouth shut.