Bills halt contract negotiations with Cook

[Captain_Quint]

8 hours ago, eball said:

Why do people want to get rid of Cook this year? He’s under contract and will be motivated to play for his next deal. He was the second most important player on offense for the Bills last year. 
 

Who cares what he asked for? He’s not going to sit out. 
 

Not to mention, he was a 2nd rd pick so if he walks next year, he'd be comp pick eligible. 

[HOUSE]

I am not sure about this, seems risky, what if something goes wrong?

Risky,risky risky stuff here

[Aussie Joe]

Just now, HOUSE said:

I am not sure about this, seems risky, what if something goes wrong?

Risky,risky risky stuff here

What’s risky about moving up from 30 to 26? 

[SoTier]

10 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Unless he holds out the maximum amount of games needed to get a full season toward FA.  

 

8 hours ago, julian said:

Depends on Cook’s attitude towards playing for the Bills this year on his current contract, if he can keep his head down and continue to be a positive vibe in the locker room and good teammate like he has up until this point, then you let him play it out and collect a 3rd round compensatory pick next year when he walks.

 

 If Cook decides to be a douche bag, then get him outta town for whatever you can get and just keep on moving.

 

Holding out for nearly half the 2025 season or playing with a crappy attitude all season isn't going to encourage other NFL teams to pay him the big bucks he wants in 2026.

[HOUSE]

2 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

What’s risky about moving up from 30 to 26? 

Nothing, it's a sarcastic Saturday

[Lfod]

He was not immediate impact when drafted. The amount Josh has had to play running back has been reduced but not eliminated completely.  Not often I remember seeing him break out huge runs fot TDs.

 

He has grown into being a good back mostly reliable for decent positive yards but not a back teams fear to run all over them for huge gains. 

 

I don't feel like losing Cook would hurt enough to merit over paying him. We leaned on the run game a handful of times. 

 

Im very neutral on him. I like him but I dont love him. I don't feel he is irreplaceable.

[MikePJ76]

Why is cook a villain all of a sudden?  Is it because people are just desperate to have something to talk about?

 

trading players before the draft is when they are worth the least and you would be losing anyway you go about it at this time of year.

 

Cook should have a great year.

[GolfandBills]

8 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

Why is cook a villain all of a sudden?  Is it because people are just desperate to have something to talk about?

 

trading players before the draft is when they are worth the least and you would be losing anyway you go about it at this time of year.

 

Cook should have a great year.

He wants a new contact aka he’s the bad man now.  Seems to be the cool thing to do on here 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

11 hours ago, Mister Defense said:

Cook is not holding out. And the Bills will not trade an elite player, one just scratching the surface of his potential, to move up in the draft.

 

He saw how short an NFL career can be with Dalvin and will never waste one full precious year of his career.

 

He plays for the Bills this year, if Beane has any sense at all, and rocks the house, even more so than last year. 

 

But hopefully he does this with a 3-4 year extension in his pocket.

 

The second best player on the team.  You don't cut bait this quickly unless you don't want to Josh Allen's Bills to ever win the big one.

 

 

 

Yeah Cook really needs another big year under his belt to prove he's really worth the $15 Mil he's asking for.  Someone like a Barkley put big numbers up in his first year and was a very big name coming out of the draft.  Cook doesn't yet have that  and hasn't shown to be a 3 down player yet so he has too much to prove to sit out this year IMO.  Maybe he doesn't show up to the voluntary sessions but if he does hold out and risks not having a big year he'll never get the money he's asking for.

[GunnerBill]

11 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Unless he holds out the maximum amount of games needed to get a full season toward FA.  

 

I genuinely don't think that will happen. If he is here I can see him holding out of camp but post Lev Bell my sense is agents do not tell their guys to hold out for half a season. Bell was never the same player after. 

[Don Otreply]

1 hour ago, HOUSE said:

I am not sure about this, seems risky, what if something goes wrong?

Risky,risky risky stuff here

Yup, scary she ite right there, 

[nosejob]

12 hours ago, Returntoglory said:

Does this seem feasible?

 

Cook is without a doubt an established top 10 running back and could provide immediate offensive upside to a team.

 

What say ye?

I would be more than happy to trade 2026 1st to move up a few spots from 62 and get a 3rd. THEN IF we were to move Cook, I'd like to get a 2026 2nd.

 

[PayDaBill$]

11 hours ago, JerseyBills said:

Appreciate Cook but I don't feel he's a Saquon or Henry type, I mean he's not even a 3 down back. 

 

He's great in his role, that TD in the AFC title game was tremendous but he's definitely replaceable but I'd want to keep him for this SB run and for the right price long term 

yeah but he’s awfully good on 1st, 2nd & he’s usually been helping to make  3rd short & more manageable.

 

RB’s have a short shelf life.  I’m not against paying him, if we can get him on board to play next year under his current contract I’m not against giving him a 3 year deal at $40m with incentives.  I just don’t want to see a long contract.

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by PayDaBill$

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

6 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I admire your consistency.

It’s more about not being afraid of this guy hurting us. I don’t want a worn down veteran RB. We barely used cook early on and he’s still young. I don’t want to bring in a vet FA from the outside that has been ridden into the ground but this team will not do that. And also, Cook is thriving in this offense. We are close enough to winning this thing that I’ll sacrifice the stupidity of paying a RB if we win it this year. The money for a RB isn’t going to destroy our cap. It being our own guy that we have seen every snap of usage changes my mindset a bit. He’s our guy. And you definitely aren’t getting value for a RB trade with a contract up. I do not want to trade him. That is dumb. That’s the most important part of why I’m being slightly contradictory 

[BananaB]

I don’t like how Cook started his demands. It’s bull####.  At the same time I’d be more pissed off now that Benford signed if I was him. Dudes been in and out of the lineup since he was drafted and has never finished a playoffs healthy. 

[Process]

I just want to confirm, Cook wasn't eligible for an extension until this off-season, correct? So even if the Bills wanted to give him $40M a year last year, they couldn't?

 

So within days of becoming eligible, he started tweeting about getting paid? And within two months, he lists his house for sale?

 

If this is all correct then he clearly just doesn't want to be here. 

 

I would say run him into the ground next year before letting him walk, but the guy plays less then half the snaps. Most important drive this organization had has in 30 years and he was on the bench. 

 

$20M? Lol. See ya. 

[SoonerBillsFan]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I genuinely don't think that will happen. If he is here I can see him holding out of camp but post Lev Bell my sense is agents do not tell their guys to hold out for half a season. Bell was never the same player after. 

If he isn't teaded,I run his butt into the ground. 400+ carries.

[H2o]

14 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

What team in their right mind would want Cook who's going to demand $15m/year on a contract extension?  Especially with an extremely strong running back class.  The GM who makes that move should be fired on the spot.

This looks like a guy who would make this type of move. 

[julian]

3 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

 

Holding out for nearly half the 2025 season or playing with a crappy attitude all season isn't going to encourage other NFL teams to pay him the big bucks he wants in 2026.

Players with piss poor attitudes get paid by other teams, there’s always a team willing to take a chance that a scenery change is all that’s needed… just ask Diggs and the Patriots.

Edited 13 hours ago by julian

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, Process said:

Cook wasn't eligible for an extension until this off-season, correct? So even if the Bills wanted to give him $40M a year last year, they couldn't?

 

So within days of becoming eligible, he started tweeting about getting paid? And within two months, he lists his house for sale?

Ya know, I haven't thought about it from that perspective before, but that is a great point. 

You're correct - Cook was not eligible for a new contract until a month ago.