Buffalo Rumblings
Buffalo Bills running back James Cook wants a contract extension and is sharing that information publicly.
It’s been a while since a Buffalo Bills player was publicly negotiating with the team, but running back James Cook added himself to the list this week. Cook isn’t set to become a free agent until next offseason, but he is already throwing salvos at general manager Brandon Beane, and things could get messy.
Earlier this week, Cook took to Instagram to express his desire not just for a new contract, but to be paid $15 million per season. That would put him second in the NFL in terms of annual salary.
Cook then doubled down on the contract demand later on Twitter. When a fan talked up Cook’s game, the Bills RB quoted him with some emojis:
if you think James Cook ain’t worth 15 you must’ve been dropped head first through the table. Pay him.
To which Cook replied with the “100” emoji four times.
Apparently, I have been dropped headfirst through a table... Sure I have always been on “Team Don’t Pay Running Backs” but now he’s up at $15 million?
The top-paid running back in the league is Christian McCaffrey at $19 million per season. Jonathan Taylor makes $14 million, Saquon Barkley slots in at $12.583 million, and Alvin Kamara is $12.25 million. Josh Jacobs is right behind him. After that, you get below $10 million per season.
The problem for Cook is that every running back on that list — every running back that makes more than $9.125 million, actually — is an every-down back. Here are the 2024 snap counts when each player was actually in the lineup by average salary:
The next player on the list is David Montgomery, part of a shared backfield in Detroit. He played 41% of the snaps for Detroit in 2024. Montgomery makes $9.125 million per season.
Cook played just 48% of the Bills’ snaps in 2025 and topped 50% once after November 10th. (It was the Divisional Round win.)
Cook’s raw numbers and efficiency numbers place him in the league’s top ten running backs, there is no question about that, but that doesn’t mean he’s one of the two best in the league.
The Bills have shown that they will let productive running backs go to other teams instead of paying for them to stay. Singletary signed a one-year, $2.75 million deal in Houston before his current three-year, $16.5 million contract in New York. Assuming they had a chance to match, the Bills didn’t even value their top running back at $3 million.
The Bills’ model under Brandon Beane has been to take a running back in the second or third round every few years. It was Ray...
