Are the Buffalo Bills moving on from James Cook?

Jon Helmkamp discusses the possibility of the Buffalo Bills moving on from star running back James Cook.

Transcript

00:00The Buffalo Bills and James Cook have been discussing a new contract all offseason,

00:05and a new update from Brandon Bean puts it into crystal clear focus exactly where things stand

00:11between the two. In this video, we're going to discuss this new update and what it could mean

00:15for James Cook's future in Buffalo. What's up, everybody? It is Jon Helmkamp with A to Z

00:22Buffalo. The saga of James Cook continues. It's been something that's been ongoing for a couple

00:27months, ever since James Cook made it publicly known that he wants $15 million per year going

00:33forward, which would make him currently the third highest paid running back in the NFL

00:38after Saquon Barkley became the first running back to top $20 million per year.

00:41So what's the update? Brandon Bean at the owners' meetings was asked about James Cook

00:46and made it very clear that the two sides have spoken, they've gone back and forth,

00:50and that they're really not close on the financial side of things right now,

00:55so much so that Brandon Bean said that they decided to move on and turn their attention

01:00to players that they felt they were more on the same page with.

01:03Ever since James Cook made his contract desires known, Bean has gone on to extend Greg Rousseau,

01:09Terrell Bernard, Khalil Shakir, Christian Benford. He's gotten a lot of other work done

01:16while James Cook is still sitting out there without a new contract. So as we're heading

01:21into the NFL draft season, Brandon Bean said that they're on to the draft, that they're not

01:26likely going to get anything done with James Cook at this point. He did say,

01:30maybe we'll have something done with James Cook before he becomes a free agent, but that doesn't

01:35sound to me like they're really interested in working on a new contract situation throughout

01:40the course of this season. So one more piece of information that just became publicly available,

01:45James Cook actually listed his Buffalo area home for sale.

01:49Obviously that brings about a ton of speculation. I'm not sure exactly what it means. It could mean

01:54that he thinks the trade is eminent and that he's moving. It could mean nothing. It could mean that

01:58he just wants a short term option and to put some money in the bank. Who knows? It's all speculation

02:03at this point, but there's a lot of smoke around James Cook and not necessarily in the right way.

02:10If you're a fan of wanting James Cook on the team for the foreseeable future,

02:14I think that James Cook is an incredible asset. I've said it on video before

02:18that I think that James Cook deserves to get paid, but I also understand the financial side

02:22of things. James Cook had an incredibly efficient season where he tied the league lead in rushing

02:28touchdowns, despite having almost 150 carries less than Derek Henry. It's a very interesting

02:34situation that's brewing, especially when you look at this year's draft class and you understand

02:38that this is a historically deep running back class and that Brandon being currently has two

02:44second round picks at his disposal where one of those could be allocated to the running back

02:48position. So how this shakes out in the coming weeks leading up to the NFL draft is going to

02:52be very important to watch, but it does seem like something might potentially be brewing

02:59with the bills potentially looking to move on from James Cook. We'll see. We'll see what moves

03:04Brandon Bean decides to make, but as of now, the two sides aren't anywhere close to getting a deal

03:09done to lock him up for the future. Let me know what you guys think about the James Cook situation

03:13and what Brandon Bean should do in the comments down below, and I'll catch you guys next time.