FROM QUEENS TO THE BOX: THE BILLS RB ROOM
Joe: Chris, we’re back breaking down the Bills roster, and today we’re looking at the running back room. It’s James Cook, Ty Johnson, Ray Davis, and probably some special teams guy that Pat Moran or one of the Cover 1 henchmen is going to convince us is the next coming because they watched every preseason snap. You and I are just going to stick with the main three.
I feel like we’ve always been on the same page when it comes to paying running backs: don’t do it unless the guy is elite. Last year at this time, I was leaning toward letting James Cook play out his rookie deal because running backs are a dime a dozen. Then Cook went out and had a monster year and made me eat my words a little bit. Does last season change your philosophy at all?
Chris: No, I think the general theory still holds. If you overpay a running back or give him too much term, you’re asking for trouble. But I also think Cook’s deal is pretty manageable. He’s got three years left, he should still be a really good back this year and probably next year too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he flirted with 1,600 yards again. I feel really comfortable with where the Bills are with him. I’d be more worried about the team that signs him after this contract.
Joe: Is there anything you want Cook to improve? Honestly, I don’t know what else to ask from a guy who just won the rushing title. Personally, I’d like to see him more involved in the passing game, but that’s also coming from someone who wishes the Bills would throw the football more. Since becoming the starter in 2023, Cook is tied for 18th among running backs in receptions and 10th in receiving yards.
Chris: I don’t really think so. He’s become their second-best weapon behind Josh Allen. I’m not sure you can ask for much more. Coming out of Georgia everyone talked about his receiving ability, and I think he’s shown he’s capable. The lack of production in the passing game doesn’t really bother me.
Do you think that’s a play-calling thing or are they trying to preserve him because of how much they run him?
Joe: That’s a good question. I lean toward scheme. Since 2023, Cook has the eighth-most touches among NFL running backs, so he definitely feels like a true bell cow. Looking back at Joe Brady’s offenses in Carolina, the running backs weren’t catching a ton of passes either. In 2020, Christian McCaffrey got hurt and Carolina’s leading running back finished with just 59 catches for 373 yards. The next year, after McCaffrey was traded, the Panthers’ backs combined for 97 catches but averaged only 7.3 yards per reception.
Who knows how much Matt Rhule influenced that offense, but we also know Josh Allen would rather throw it 30 yards downfield than dump it off five yards. Speaking of running the football, here’s a stat that surprised me: since 2023, the Bills are third in the NFL in both rushing attempts and rushing yards. Did that surprise you?
Chris: Not at all. Sean McDermott has been pretty transparent that he wanted a more balanced offense, and Cook delivered exactly what they were looking for.
Joe: Let’s play over/under.
Cook’s numbers last year:
309 carries
1,621 rushing yards
5.2 yards per carry
12 touchdowns
Where are you going?
Chris: I’ll take the under on the yardage, but I still think he gets around 1,500. I’ll say 312 carries, 1,548 yards and 10 touchdowns. I think the workload stays about the same, but maybe the touchdowns come down a little because of game flow. Five yards per carry still feels realistic.
Joe: What about Ty Johnson and Ray Davis? I felt like both had bigger offensive roles in 2024 than they did last season. Davis becoming a really good kickoff returner made his lack of offensive production easier to swallow, but do you want to see those guys involved more? Or is this just James Cook’s backfield?
Chris: There have definitely been times where I thought Johnson got too many snaps over Cook. It reminded me a little of Chan Gailey’s “it’s Fred’s turn” philosophy. Davis looked really promising as a rookie but kind of regressed last season. Like you said, the kick returning helps. If he can find his rhythm again offensively, they could have a legitimate three-headed monster. That probably means taking some touches away from Cook, but if that gives him fresher legs in January, I’m all for it.
Joe: Two last questions.
First, is this the Bills’ best position group? I think it has the most depth, and honestly, James Cook might be the second-best player on the roster behind Josh Allen.
Second, do you think the Bills throw the football more this season? My feeling is yes. I think Joe Brady wants to make Josh Allen happy. Everyone in the organization has spent the offseason saying, “We want to win this for Josh.” That tells me Allen probably has more influence on the game plan now than he did a couple of years ago.
Chris: I think DJ Moore is going to help open things up. Their outside receivers have been pretty bad since Diggs left, and Moore is easily the best one they’ve had. I don’t expect fireworks, but he should naturally lead to more passing attempts. As for the position groups, I think running back is probably the best on the roster. Tight end has an argument, and the offensive line is right there too, but I’d probably rank the backs first, then tight end and offensive line.
Check out Chris Ostrander’s work at Two in the Box
Tweet of the Week That Pissed Off Buffalo X
Welcome to a new feature.
Every week, I’ll spotlight the tweet that got quote-tweeted into oblivion by bots, content bros, Bills beat bros, Billsagram influencers, Pat Moran, and seemingly half the people with a 716 area code.
This week’s winner came from The Herd, where a clip made the rounds with the headline: “I think Josh Allen’s got to leave Buffalo to win a Super Bowl.”
Now, I’ll admit it…the tweet was absolutely designed to piss people off. It was social media producing at its finest...or worst, depending on your perspective. I’d bet 80% of the people dunking on it never actually watched the four-minute segment.
Because the segment wasn’t really about Josh Allen leaving Buffalo.
It started with a discussion about the Bills’ roster. ESPN recently ranked Buffalo 29th in the NFL in under-25 talent. That’s not exactly a controversial statistic. Whether you like it or not, the Bills have one of the league’s older cores and their younger guys on their rookie deals are unproven.
Then Jason Garrett jumped in and said he still believes Josh Allen will win multiple Super Bowls because the team around him is good. After that, Jason McIntyre pointed out that Allen is entering Year 9—the same point in a career where quarterbacks like John Elway, Steve Young, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Matt Stafford, and Jim Plunkett finally won their first Super Bowl. He argued the roster has declined compared to previous years, questioned whether the defensive line really improved, noted they’re putting a lot of faith in a new defensive coordinator, and wondered why Brandon Beane received an extension.
You may disagree with those opinions, but I don’t think they’re outrageous takes and I actually agree with most of them.
Then...with about 13 seconds left in a 4:45 clip...McIntyre said the magic words:
“I think Josh Allen has to leave Buffalo to win a Super Bowl.”
Boom.
That’s the headline.
That’s the tweet.
That’s the engagement bait.
And that’s all most people needed to hear.
The irony is that the first four-and-a-half minutes were actually a discussion about roster construction, aging talent, and whether the Bills have done enough to maximize the best quarterback in franchise history. Instead, the conversation became, “THIS GUY IS AN IDIOT!! PLEASE LIKE MY QT WHERE I STAND BY OUR MAN!”
Welcome to sports social media in 2026.
The only thing I did disagree was the last part where he mentioned Matt Stafford as an example. The Lions made the playoffs twice and never won a playoff game with Stafford. They were mediocre and bumbling. The Bills are not that. If anything, a better comparison would have been the Patriots in 2019 when the talent around Brady was terrible and he wanted out due to that and being over Belichick.
The goal isn’t always to summarize the conversation. Sometimes it’s to find the one sentence that’ll get Bills fans, Cowboys fans, Jets fans, fantasy football accounts, blue-check engagement farmers, and your uncle from Cheektowaga screaming at each other for the next 48 hours.
Mission accomplished.
STATHEAD OF THE WEEK: BILLS ROOKIE SNAPS AND STARTS SINCE 2019
-We are about to enter the season of “Under Sean McDermott, this never happened” and it will be viewed in a positive way towards the new regime. There’s been a consensus that McDermott didn’t really play rookies as much. It’s a debatable process as he did a lot in his first two seasons, but did shy away from it when the roster got better. What jumps out is only one rookie defensive player played over 50% of the snaps, which is crazy since this team has always been heavy on drafting defense. Also, I had no idea or don’t remember Gabe Davis playing as many snaps in 2020. Plus, 7 offensive players played at least 50% of snaps.
I looked at the Chiefs since the Bills seem to pick around the same time they do and they had 5 offensive and 5 defensive players play more than 50% of the snaps.
Dad Shots
—ESPN made headlines this week with layoffs that included Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, and Karl Ravech. What fascinated me almost as much as the cuts themselves was who broke the Ryan Clark news first. Right-wing media outlets jumped on it immediately and celebrated it, largely because Clark has become a frequent target over his political commentary mixing with sports. It was another reminder that sports media doesn’t exist in a bubble anymore. Personalities aren’t just sports analysts, they’re political figures to some audiences whether they want to be or not.
—The reaction to Karl Ravech’s departure was overwhelmingly emotional. Everyone called him a pro’s pro, a class act, and a broadcasting legend and they’re right. But it also made me wonder: how many of the people mourning his exit were actually going out of their way to watch him on ESPN? We constantly hear that “ESPN isn’t what it used to be,” yet many stopped watching years ago. It’s easy to be nostalgic after the fact. The harder question is whether viewers were still supporting the people they now say they’ll miss.
—Whenever ESPN stumbles, people immediately compare it to the glory days. But maybe the problem isn’t ESPN. Maybe it’s that the media world is completely different. SportsCenter was once destination television because it had no real competition. Today you’ve got podcasts, YouTube, social media, team-produced content, gambling shows, newsletters, and 24/7 sports news everywhere you look. Would the classic Keith Olberman and Dan Patrick SportsCenter even work in 2026? As great as they were, I’m not sure people would wait until 11 p.m. to see highlights they watched on their phone six hours earlier. The audience didn’t disappear, it just scattered and got instant access.
—One of the more interesting media trends is how licensing programming seems to be replacing traditional production. Look at ESPN. Instead of producing everything in-house, they’ve gone all-in on licensing shows like The Pat McAfee Show and Inside the NBA. I’m curious whether this actually ends up being cheaper. Those productions are responsible for their own staffs, studio space, equipment, and day-to-day operations. ESPN gets premium content without having to build or maintain all of that infrastructure themselves. I don’t know what the financial math looks like behind the scenes, but it certainly feels like a different business model than the one ESPN operated under for decades. I have a hot take: I bet Stephen A Smith takes First Take and puts it under his own umbrella and ESPN pays him a license fee to produce it.
And it isn’t just television.
The agreement between Audacy—parent company of WGR—and SiriusXM caught my attention. For years, terrestrial radio and satellite radio felt like rivals that weren’t exactly looking to help each other. That feud has been going on longer than Russo vs. Cornette. Now Sirius is carrying Audacy’s stations, which feels like a pretty significant shift. Maybe it’s simply a content licensing deal that benefits both sides. Sirius gets established local programming without having to build local sports stations across the country, while Audacy expands its audience and creates another revenue stream.
Or maybe this is something bigger.
Sirius has never really been in the local sports radio business. If this partnership works, does it eventually become interested in owning local stations outright? Could licensing be the first step before acquisitions? I have no idea if that’s the plan, but it’s an interesting question to watch over the next few years.
—Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t just need to be good—it has to be great. Marvel has spent years living off the goodwill built by the Infinity Saga, but that goodwill isn’t unlimited. Fans have become more selective, superhero fatigue is real, and audiences aren’t automatically showing up anymore just because the Marvel logo appears on screen. This movie has to remind people why they fell in love with the MCU in the first place. If it misses, Marvel won’t be dead—but convincing casual fans to care again becomes a much tougher mission.
—Is Tom Brady Having a Midlife Crisis? Since he retired, he’s started giving off serious midlife crisis vibes. You know the guy. He buys the Corvette, gets the hair transplant, and suddenly has to prove he’s still the coolest guy in the room. Brady feels like that guy. It also feels like he’s trying to become the post-football version of Peyton Manning. The difference is Peyton is naturally funny. Brady feels like he’s trying to manufacture that same likability.
To be fair, he’s actually gotten better as a broadcaster. But then everything else gets weird. There was the crypto disaster. There was Tom vs. Time, which felt more like an infomercial than a documentary. He’s FOX’s lead analyst. He’s a minority owner of the Raiders, which I still think the NFL never should have approved. He had the Tom Brady Roast. He’s invested in Birmingham City Football Club, the Las Vegas Aces, CardVault, Autograph, TB12, 199 Productions, Religion of Sports, Delta Air Lines...and probably three other companies I forgot about while writing this.
Now the latest rumor is that he could end up in WWE with Logan Paul. Let me tell you something, brother...That is going to be a disaster. Outside of Boston and maybe Tampa, Brady is going to get booed out of every arena. He could come out with Cody Rhodes. Hulk Hogan could burst through the coffin yelling, “I’m back, brother!” and reform the Mega Powers with Brady. It wouldn’t matter. Tom Brady is getting booed mercilessly.
And that’s what makes me wonder...
Does Brady know that?
Do the people around him know that?
— I didn’t think the John Harbaugh speech making the rounds on social media was that bad. It just felt like your standard preseason speech from a coach. It wasn’t particularly inspiring, but it wasn’t a train wreck either. The way people were talking about it before I watched on social media, I was expecting some all-time cringe moment. Instead, it was just...boring coach talk. Certainly not something that deserved an entire segment on one of the screaming debate shows.
—Not really sure why the change in time slot as 10am-12pm is usually a death time slot in radio. Maybe the practice schedule for the Bills during the regular season has changed and it is during the 1-3pm window and it’s easier to get players/coaches as guests. Will be interesting to see if WGR decides to counter program this as the current 10am-12pm spot hasn’t been established and has a revolving door of hosts.
— Get ready for Bills X to completely lose its mind over the leaked gray alternate jerseys that, by the time you’re reading this, have probably already been unveiled. I asked people on Bluesky what they thought, and the response was almost universally negative. My favorite reply was someone saying they looked like West Herr employee uniforms, which genuinely made me laugh.
I don’t have a particularly strong opinion on them other than I’ve never been much of a gray-uniform guy. Gray just feels bland to me. More than anything, these leaks look like a copy-and-paste job from half the league. Every team seems to be rolling out a third or fourth jersey these days, and they’re all starting to blend together. If the goal is to stand out, making everyone look the same feels like an odd strategy.
I will say this: the leaked helmets are definitely...different. They look like a Christmas ornament hanging on my mom’s tree. Maybe they’ll grow on me when I see them on the field, but right now that’s all I can see.
—Random Bills training camp story: Remember when Chan Gailey yelled at kids for making fun of Trent Edwards sideburns and said “you dog one of us, you dog all of us!” The transition from Jauron to Gailey was always hilarious to me because Bills apologists couldn’t wait to say “Wow! Chan is more intense! This isn’t a country club ANYMORE!” I’m like it is fucking Chan Gailey, he’s not William Wallace. But narratives to put over the next guy is always gonna be a thing.
—I’m old enough to remember when the Bills wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Bills Mafia name or fans diving through folding tables. If you smashed a table in the stadium lots, there was a good chance security was sending you on your way. The organization spent years trying to distance itself from that image.
Fast forward to today, and Bills Mafia branding is everywhere. Folding tables will now be a part of the team’s new stadium. Are they gonna be set on fire if the Bills win a game or you spend $100 at the concession stand?
I don’t know whether you’d call it embracing the fan culture, giving in to the Barstool-style party crowd, or simply realizing there’s money to be made by marketing it to a younger generation. Either way, it’s a pretty remarkable shift. What was once considered an embarrassment is now a selling point.
— We are officially in the trenches with this two-kid life. Tensions are high. If we get five hours of sleep, it feels like we just won the Super Bowl. The Mrs. has had to take the brunt of the lack of sleep with feedings. Every day is basically a relay race of diapers, bottles, tantrums, naps that may or may not happen, and trying to remember whether you’ve actually eaten anything. I’m pretty sure I survived a two-day stretch on seven leftover bagels from Andy’s birthday party and five macadamia nut cookies.
To make matters worse, our fucking Snoo broke. For those who don’t know, a Snoo is a bassinet that straps your baby in and, when they wake up crying, starts rocking and vibrating to try to lull them back to sleep. We had one with Andy, and it worked like a charm. This time around, like last time, we bought one secondhand on Facebook Marketplace for about $600 because a brand-new one runs around $1,600 and has a resale market hotter than Bills tickets. So the idea is once you are done using it, you can resell it back and maybe lose like 50 bucks. The downside is you can wind up with a dud and no warranty. Congratulations to us…we hit the jackpot.
The Mrs. is currently doing her best MacGyver impression trying to get it working again because your boy here is about as handy as Tom Donahoe building a football team or Pat Moran troubleshooting a live remote at Imperial Pizza.
The good news is Andy has been an absolute champ with his little brother. He tells Luke he loves him, grabs diapers whenever we need one, and even helps pick out his outfits. It’s ridiculously sweet. I can’t wait until he’s 10 so I can start paying him four bucks an hour to clean the entire house. I’ll be doing my best Johnny Lawrence impression by sitting back, supervising, and telling the kids, “If you find any change while you’re cleaning the couch...it’s mine.”
— If you made it this far, thank you. If you’re enjoying the Substack, please share it with your friends, family, and enemies. Buy a Homage shirt through my link, or if you’re feeling extra generous, donate to the “Get Joe’s Stupid Snoo Working Again” fund. As always, I’ll be on the Talking Buffalo podcast Monday with the Brooklyn Brawler of podcasts…Pat Moran. It’s training camp season, which means Pat wants me to really lock in on August football and discuss depth charts, overhyping 7th round rookies, falling in love with some high motor player, and panicking about something. In other words, I’ll listen to Joe Marino, steal roughly 80% of his takes, and spend the other 20% guessing.
Thanks again, everyone. Have a great week, drink plenty of water...and if you’ve got a spare Snoo lying around, call me.
Glad little Andy has taken to the job of big brother well!
Also, regarding radio...I can totally see a world where Sirius eventually buys up some of these local radio stations. Radio is on life support and media companies keep merging just to keep the lights on. Not sure I love it, but it is what it is.
And good luck with the Snoo!
Great stuff Joe. Always enjoy opening these up on a Monday morning!