James Cook: To Pay or Not To Pay

Kyle Crabbs analyzes where the Buffalo Bills should offer James Cook a new contract or let him walk.

Transcript

00:00Buffalo Bills running back James Cook is looking for a big payday this offseason but the likelihood

00:05of him finding it with the Bills feels pretty slim. I'm Kyle Krabs with A to Z Sports and the

00:14Buffalo Bills were entering into a fascinating window with their contract standoff with running

00:20back James Cook. James Cook set to enter into a contract year in 2025 and scheduled to play for

00:26about 5.3 million dollars after posting consecutive 1,000 yard seasons with the team

00:32the past two years. Cook for his part showed up to many camps surrendering the opportunity to put

00:39the Bills feet to the fire and try to pressure his football team into conceding on his ask for a top

00:46of market running back contract. An ask that in my opinion is a little ambitious when you consider

00:52just the past year Buffalo successfully transitioned away from Stephon Diggs at wide receiver to help

00:58spread the offensive workload across names like Khalil Shakir and Deion Coleman and Dolby Cade

01:05and James Cook. Diggs once upon a time was widely considered one of the best wide receivers in

01:11football and his departure as the wide receiver one allowed Josh Allen to play a more efficient

01:18brand of football and that evolution for Josh Allen to not just be Superman who puts on his cape

01:24but to not take sacks to avoid negative plays to distribute the ball to the open receiver the

01:31everybody eats mantra that the Bills pursued last season has opened up a new level to Josh Allen's game

01:38which he promptly cashed in on by winning the NFL's MVP award and getting a new contract of his own at

01:44six years and $330 million. That is the tree that James Cook is trying to bark up in Buffalo to get

01:53a marquee running back contract while also playing behind an offensive line that has had as much

01:59stability the last two years as far as the starters being on the field and playing together and building

02:05chemistry as any other team of football. James Cook might not look at snap counts. He went talking to

02:10the media this week said I don't pay attention to snap counts but the Bills most certainly are and

02:16anybody that's signing running backs to contracts is most certainly looking at what you are doing when

02:22you're on the field but also how much you can do to stay on the field and the Bills have had to make

02:27some concessions with third downs passing downs short yardage situations and end of game situations

02:34to grind out yardage where Cook is not seeing the field as high of a frequency as the guys who are

02:41playing 75-80 plus percent of snaps and closing out those football games names like Saquon Barkley

02:47and Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey. Henry just got a two-year $30 million contract extension

02:54at $15 million per season while Saquon Barkley went north of 20. Cook's looking for something in that

03:00strike zone and I don't think he's very well positioned to get it and from that sense it's a

03:05good thing that he showed up and didn't surrender six figures in fines for skipping mandatory minicamp

03:11but the Bills have the knowledge in their back pocket that they're well invested in the offensive

03:16line. They have young players that are emerging talents in the past game weaponry. They just drafted

03:22Ray Davis as their insurance policy at running back. They can play as hard a ball with James Cook as

03:28they won and if James Cook shows up in 2025 and plays to a completely different standard and magically

03:34becomes a viable player to play on passing downs and pass protection then maybe the conversation

03:40will change but until that actually happens the Bills would be wise to stick to their price point

03:46and let James Cook decide once and for all for himself if it's more important to cash in on a

03:52productive stretch with the Bills to go play somewhere else or to stay where the production has treated him so well.