James Cook AFC Offensive Player of the Month (September 2025)!

[Doc Brown]

14 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

It's another reason I was big on "just give the dude his $15M avg". Keep your best, most important players happy.

He didn't do enough to this point in his career to earn $15m per year.  It's why an $11.5m/year with a contract that's easy to get out of after 2026 was more reasonable.  If he stays healthy (which is a big ask of RB's) he'll get top of the market money a few years from now.  Then the pay a RB debate will be all the rage on this board again.

Edited Thursday at 05:55 PM by Doc Brown

[DrDawkinstein]

1 minute ago, Doc Brown said:

He didn't do enough to this point in his career to earn $15m per year.  It's why an $11.5m/year with a contract that's easy to get out of after 2026 was more reasonable.  If he stays healthy (which is a big ask of RB's) he'll get top of the market money a few years from now.  Then the pay a RB debate will be all the rage on this board again.

 

Bad teams pay guys on what they did in the past. But to that point, he was already the 2nd most important player on Offense.

 

He showed enough YoY improvement to give him a better contract than they did, especially with the state of the cap and streaming revenue.

 

Beane made his bed. He better be ready to kick Samuel and/or Knox out of it in order to keep Cook happy and a Bill.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

RBs earning big second (even third) contracts is officially a thing again.  Henry, Barkley, Jacobs, Cook.
 

Even known injury risks like Javonte Williams and JK Dobbins are succeeding in a second phase of their careers.

Edited Thursday at 06:00 PM by SageAgainstTheMachine

[Doc Brown]

9 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Bad teams pay guys on what they did in the past. But to that point, he was already the 2nd most important player on Offense.

 

He showed enough YoY improvement to give him a better contract than they did, especially with the state of the cap and streaming revenue.

 

Beane made his bed. He better be ready to kick Samuel and/or Knox out of it in order to keep Cook happy and a Bill.

No.  Bad teams pay aging veterans who don't have much juice left for what they did in the past.  We paid Allen twice for what he did in the past because we projected he'll only get better in the future.  Are you trying to argue Beane should've signed Cook to a larger contract?

[hondo in seattle]

51 minutes ago, WNYFAN1 said:

Is Cook being this good going to be used against Allen like the Henry argument was last year for why Lamar didn't earn MVP?

 

Maybe, though I don't personally care.  The individual awards are nice but what we all want, including Allen and Cook, is playoff success.  

[transient]

Nice to see a player get paid and then live up to the contract (that's right, I'm giving the side-eye to you, Rousseau).

[DrDawkinstein]

4 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

No.  Bad teams pay aging veterans who don't have much juice left for what they did in the past.  We paid Allen twice for what he did in the past because we projected he'll only get better in the future.  Are you trying to argue Beane should've signed Cook to a larger contract?

 

Yes. Another couple mil a year wouldve been easy to find to keep him happy and prevent any future renegotiation.

 

I'm really not trying to make that argument, I didnt wake up and log on to say this, just discussing it in the context of this thread and when someone mentioned he's already underpaid.

 

[Cray51]

Great to see.  I was a fan of getting him signed, but wasn't sure if $15M would be worth it.  To be honest, I still am not 100% that $15M a year made sense, but to get him done at $12M was a GREAT deal.  Which doesn't kick in until next year to boot!

[BillytheKid]

1 hour ago, WNYFAN1 said:

Is Cook being this good going to be used against Allen like the Henry argument was last year for why Lamar didn't earn MVP?

 

No because there is a huge difference. 
 

Lamars receivers were the most wide open receivers last year because of Henry. 
 

That isn’t the case with Buffalo.

 

From Bill  Barnwells article on ESPN today about who his MVP is through the quarter season so far:

 

“Allen creates value for the Bills in so many ways. There are the obvious ones. Allen leads all quarterbacks in rushing EPA. He's third in the NFL in yards per dropback. Buffalo's receivers are running one of the worst drop rates in football while Allen hits them with the fifth-best precise pass rate in the NFL (measuring how reliably QBs deliver their throws in stride around the torso area to their pass catchers). You know Allen is capable of the spectacular, but he has also just become so consistent at executing Joe Brady's offense play after play and drive after drive.”

Edited Thursday at 07:12 PM by BillytheKid

[DapperCam]

1 hour ago, WNYFAN1 said:

Is Cook being this good going to be used against Allen like the Henry argument was last year for why Lamar didn't earn MVP?

Last year Henry got ~2k rushing yards and tied for the lead in TDs. Cook isn't quite at that level right now (even though he has been great). As far as RBs this season go, you could conceivably put Cook behind Jonathan Taylor and Bijan Robinson (those 3 have been a tier above the rest so far IMO).

[Chicken Boo]

That's damn impressive, especially given his competition.  

 

4 or 5 RBs have been going nuclear so far this season.  

[MJS]

3 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Overpaid

Not worth the money

Not elite

Troublemaker

Not a team player

Diva

Can't catch

Cant block

Can't break tackles

Don't pay running backs

Ray Davis or Gore Jr would be just as good

And the classic, "If he behaves" post...

 

Any other horribly inaccurate takes I am missing??  Feel free to own up to them... 

Yeah, I still think he can't block very well 😉

2 hours ago, WNYFAN1 said:

Is Cook being this good going to be used against Allen like the Henry argument was last year for why Lamar didn't earn MVP?

Allen got his MVP. It doesn't matter. Aldo, I'm not sure MVP voters considered Henry when evaluating Lamar Jackson's MVP case. Fans sure talked about it, but that doesn't mean much. Plus, Cook had his breakout year last year as well. That could have similarly been used against Allen.

[Don Otreply]

3 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Overpaid

Not worth the money

Not elite

Troublemaker

Not a team player

Diva

Can't catch

Cant block

Can't break tackles

Don't pay running backs

Ray Davis or Gore Jr would be just as good

And the classic, "If he behaves" post...

 

Any other horribly inaccurate takes I am missing??  Feel free to own up to them... 

 

 

 

 

Not a three down RB, 

[NewEra]

He’s looked like the best RB in the league this year and I love to see him recognized like this.  With a shout out to the OL.  
 

Eager to see how the run game does vs the Pats.  They have a solid defense. Good front 7 and one of the better cornerback duos in the league.  Hopefully we can take advantage of their safeties.  Running backs and TE’s have done work against them this season.  

[ganesh]

5 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Overpaid

Not worth the money

Not elite

Troublemaker

Not a team player

Diva

Can't catch

Cant block

Can't break tackles

Don't pay running backs

Ray Davis or Gore Jr would be just as good

And the classic, "If he behaves" post...

 

Any other horribly inaccurate takes I am missing??  Feel free to own up to them... 

 

 

 

 

that he didn't want to play in Buffalo and leveraging the contract to play somewhere south.

2 hours ago, NewEra said:

He’s looked like the best RB in the league this year and I love to see him recognized like this.  With a shout out to the OL.  
 

Eager to see how the run game does vs the Pats.  They have a solid defense. Good front 7 and one of the better cornerback duos in the league.  Hopefully we can take advantage of their safeties.  Running backs and TE’s have done work against them this season.  

As per the weekly articles, the Pats have a bad secondary that Allen should exploit.

[Dafan]

5 hours ago, Yobogoya! said:

I gotta be honest- had my doubts Cook was worth the money but he's definitely gone full playmaker this year!

 

Hard to believe we haven't had a RB earn this distinction since 1991. We've had some damn good rb's even during the decades of futility, but obviously we didn't make a habit of consistent offensive production during those years. 

Totally agree.  I remember the one year (2011) Freddie was on pace to break 2000 yards possibly and got injured.  In 10 games (technically just over 9 as I believe he got injured early in last game) he averaged just under 150 scrimmage yards per game.

[Fan in Chicago]

Well earned!! Way to go, James Cook. 

 

And his performance is at least the same if not better than in his contract year. Which says a lot about the type of person he is. 

[mbs]

Sure, he's on pace for 1700+ yards, but you guys are gonna feel pretty silly when he finishes with only 1650 or so.

 

I don't think it's fair to blame people who didn't want to pay him Henry money when he wound up signing for like 20% less. That is, no one else was offering him Henry money either.

 

I was relieved to see 12M/yr with a reasonable guarantee and now I feel like it was a steal. In hindsight, I would be be plenty forgiving if they had given him 15M for four years, but I also think he's playing better than anyone expected.  And it wouldn't have been a steal.

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

6 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Overpaid

Not worth the money

Not elite

Troublemaker

Not a team player

Diva

Can't catch

Cant block

Can't break tackles

Don't pay running backs

Ray Davis or Gore Jr would be just as good

And the classic, "If he behaves" post...

 

Any other horribly inaccurate takes I am missing??  Feel free to own up to them... 

Should have traded him for a 2nd round pick when we had the chance...

[DrDawkinstein]

1 hour ago, mbs said:

Sure, he's on pace for 1700+ yards, but you guys are gonna feel pretty silly when he finishes with only 1650 or so.

 

I don't think it's fair to blame people who didn't want to pay him Henry money when he wound up signing for like 20% less. That is, no one else was offering him Henry money either.

 

I was relieved to see 12M/yr with a reasonable guarantee and now I feel like it was a steal. In hindsight, I would be be plenty forgiving if they had given him 15M for four years, but I also think he's playing better than anyone expected.  And it wouldn't have been a steal.

 

No one was allowed to make him any offers. He was still under contract with the Bills. If he had access to the open market, he'd be gone or we'd be paying much more.