Bills RB James Cook has officially started his HOLD IN – But Why Now?!

Bills RB James Cook has officially started his HOLD IN – But Why Now?!

Now ladies and gentlemen, a impromptu episode on Sunday, August the 3rd. As many of you know, I was in the middle of moving. I am actually in my brand new office, my brand new background, and I was not anticipating on coming live at all today. I was going to wait for tomorrow for yet another day of training camp, but unfortunately we ultimately learned just about a half hour ago now I want to say or about 45 minutes ago that James Cook, running back for the Buffalo Bills, has officially and seemingly began his hold out for the 2025 season. Now, based off of reports, it started with a late practice. I was super close into starting my training camp live, playbyplay, and I did notice that Buffalo started about an hour later. I was mostly unplugged for the weekend. However, one thing I did see was James Cook walking on the sideline in street clothes with head trainer. He was also ultimately doing the exercise bike off to the side. But one thing that really stood out to me was the fact he sat down via his press conference and when asked whether or not that he was holding in or whe or why he didn’t decide to practice, it had everything to do with the fact with business. He said business about five to six, seven to eight times while he was on his said press conference. In full transparency, folks, we have seen this Buffalo Bills injury report for the past couple of days. And let’s just call a spade a spade. This thing is practically a CVS receipt. We know how extensive this thing is. So when I saw James Cook on the sideline, I just thought maybe he may have tweaked something like during the red and blue like excuse me scrimmage, right? Or maybe he was like having a vet rest day. But no, it is actually him sitting on the sideline and he said it has everything to do with business. Now, my thing and something I’ll probably continue to ask is going to be why now, right? Like, it just didn’t make sense. Maybe we should have been able to put two and two together because based off of his attendance during mandatory mini camp and then also going into training camp, we all thought, hey, you know what? Like, he’s he’s bought in. he wants to be a Buffalo Bill. But then once you really unpack what he said during all of those press conferences during mandatory mini camp and during the beginning of training camp, it had everything to do with I’m trying to avoid my $50,000 a day or my fines that I would be sustaining. So my question is, if you were planning on holding in all along, from the very beginning, why the hell are you risking going out and being a full participant from the first practice all the way into practice 7 into practice 8. because say for example that he were to hurt himself then his hopes for a contract would have completely gone out the window in the first place. So my only theory here folks is this. I think why he has decided to hold in now midway through training camp more than likely has everything to do with the fact that he is seeing his teammates drop like flies. From what I understand in Rochester, it’s been very hot like these past couple of days. Like we’re seeing guys go down uh with a lot of soft tissue injuries. Uh we just heard that Khil Shakir has a high ankle sprain. He is weak to weak. Same thing with Maxwell Haristen. I’m not sure if that spooked him and he was hoping that these conversations were going in a positive direction and then maybe it might have been a mix of James Cook just not being happy with how those conversations were going in the first place. But lo and behold, folks, we have James Cook is now officially holding in from the Buffalo Bills. It sucks, but here we are. Folks, as you are coming in, please do me a favor. Smash that like button, subscribe to the channel, turn on bell notifications, guys. I am live Monday through Friday, twice a week, and my full stream schedule is going to be thrown into the wolves. All right? Like, we are hitting the ground running full speed ahead for the remainder of the season, starting tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. EST and then also at 3:00 p.m. EST is where you will be able to catch me on this channel. But I just figured it was time for us to hop on and have this conversation because I think this is the biggest piece of news and the most headscratching piece of news that has come out of camp thus far. So sound off in the chat. Let me know your thoughts. We have Jack Herps has just come in with a $2 donation. I appreciate you, my friend. Thank you so much. His people are giving him terrible advice. Child with an exclamation point. Listen, a lot of Bills fans are upset about this. Um it’s intriguing. It is very very intriguing guys right before we start getting into a Q&A segment. Um I gotta ask I am super nosy. Let me know where you are tuning in from. I am curious to see how far Bill’s Mafia truly extends. Let’s get into the roll call portion of this episode. Do not be shy. I am including all of the lurkers on this chat that don’t particularly like to hop in and uh speak. Feel free. Let me know where are you tuning in from. Let’s get a good understanding of where Bill’s Mafia truly truly is. New background is looking good. Khalil Shakir, first off, I hope your high ankle sprain works out well, but it’s not done. It’s not done yet. I was actually hoping that my first train back wouldn’t be until tomorrow, but it’s not done. But this is the um so the first touches of everything. I have an actual TV right there, so I will be able to watch all of my football games this year during my live playbyplay reactions. I’m gonna have a nice little garage beer like poster like right over here. I’m going to hang up that Jim Kelly poster, excuse me, that frame jersey and then also a Roundt Sports logo right above the top. So, a lot of really cool things are cooking up for this channel in 2025. So, I appreciate you showing a little bit of love. The new background and the move went very, very well. Where is everybody? Uh, where Okay, we have Iowa is in the building. Talk to me. Memphis, Tennessee, Seattle is in the building. Rochester, New York, South Florida, Ohio, Niagara Falls, Auburnale, Florida is in the building. Waterburgg, talk to me on this one. Second, Cook knows he’s about to be a trade piece for Parsons along with AJ Epanessa. I did see that and that’s something that we are going to discuss a bit later on this stream. I just had to hop on here for a brief second. So let’s see. We have Vancouver, British Columbia is in the building. Austin, Texas is in the building. Atlanta, Ocala, Florida is in the building. We have Gosh in New York. Baltimore is in the building. Homer, New York. Hector, New York. Go Bills. Put Ray Davis as running back one. Many of you may even start to debate that Ray Davis should be kicker number one since I heard that he has a damn leg. Nashville, Tennessee is in the building. Tuned in from Southwest Florida. Rainey, what’s going on, man? New York, Phoenix, Arizona. Man, let’s talk about this. And okay, wow, we have Guatemala in the building as well. Shout out to everybody tuning in. Let’s talk a little ball here. Okay. It’s because of Hard Knocks. Let’s trade him to Dallas for Micah Parsons. So, you bring up an interesting point and no, I’m not hopping on this bandwagon saying that we should include him in a package to send over to Dallas for Michael Parsons because from what I understand, I have been a bit unplugged this weekend while I was going through my move, but I have heard a couple of things that it sounds like how Michael Parsons or what teams he would be open into joining the Buffalo Bills were a team that his agent has all but confirmed he potentially would be okay with going with. Right. So, Michael Parsons and his agent. So, he revealed four desired trade destinations, Buffalo being one of them. Now, here’s my question when it comes into it. Um, for me, I feel like we’ve seen this story a million times for the past couple of years where players ultimately end up asking for a trade during this time, right in the middle of training camp, like we’ve seen it with Brandon Aayuk, uh, we saw with Debo Samuel a couple of years ago with San Francisco and then now more interestingly, we see the Terry McLaren and we see Michael Parsons is now in that said conversation. For me, I don’t think that Brandon B number one has the financial assets to make this happen. And number two, I’m not entirely convinced that Dallas is going to walk away from this guy. And that’s the exact same energy that I’m coming from where I think Washington is not going to walk away from Terry McLaren. I think that this is just a lastditch effort for a negotiation piece within that one own respective uh sort of organization by itself. But I would be shocked if Buffalo ended up making a move for this edge rusher. Right now his total cap hit is around 24$25 million since Dallas is going to be exercising his fifth year option this year. And last time I checked, I’m pretty sure Buffalo is right in the single digits or excuse me, six digits in available cap spend. So, it’s going to be it’s going to be tough for us to make sense of that financially. Not unless Buffalo is planning on giving him a multi4 to 5year mega deal. It could be done theoretically, but I just don’t think that Parsons and or Terry McLaren are going to be wearing a different uniform at all this year. Um, that’s my take, but I would be fine if if that was true. I mean, uh, let’s see, uh, let’s see how everyone’s doing this morning. True. But not many players come out and say they no longer want to play with the franchise, for sure. Um, so I think the Brandon Iuk situation a few years back was somewhat similar to me where he had his fiance post a video saying goodbye to the city of San Francisco. like we all thought that he was all but gone. Um, look, right now it is the NFL. I suppose anything could happen. And trust me, like I know that my company especially has been running with this storyline, putting together hypothetical trade packages from Dallas and somebody else. I just don’t think if Buffalo doesn’t want to pay a top five running back in the NFL $15 million a year, it’s kind of hard for me to think that Brandon Bean is going to really break the bank and make Michael Parsons the highest paid edge rusher in the NFL. That for me would be a long shot, but again, I would be pleased to be wrong, but it’s it’s just not something I’m thinking about. I tried to tell people about Cook, but no one ever wants to listen. Brad Davis is a beast. James is cooked. I love Cook, but you got to agree, Dan, as a Bills fan, it’s pissing us off. It’s It’s frustrating, right? It’s frustrating because now I feel like I just have more questions. And really all we can do is just speculate that he decided to start his hold in after seeing how injured half of his teammates have been since the beginning of camp. And guys, look, I know that this year specifically has been terrible as far as injuries. like we have an extensive injury report right now, but it’s not something that the Buffalo Bills are dealing with exclusively. It is not something that Buffalo is only dealing with. It’s really hurting the vast majority of the league right now. So maybe James got spooked and he was just like, “Okay, yeah, I think maybe now like I need to like save myself so I don’t get injured.” Because his contract is entirely based upon he actually plays week one through week 17. He’s due about $15 million in base salary. He’s not guaranteed a dime of that. So, I think that could be that could be the reason perhaps, but it’s the timing for me which doesn’t make sense. Like, why would he like risk an injury to himself and be a full participant? Like so I could see if say for example that like he was going out there and he was practicing but like he wasn’t doing a lot of team drill activities but from what I understand like James Cook was out there for everything. Like dude was out there in all of the team drills all full speed all fully padded. Why did he wait until today? I think that’s a question that I mean we may never get the answer to. Paying him more than 11 million a year is a mistake. Running backs and wide receivers are easily so replaceable. So the thing is is that so a lot of people look at $15 million a year. And I always encourage that you don’t obsess over the it’s called the annual average value of said contract. look at what is fully guaranteed on the contract. That is truly what a team is 100% responsible for. So, say that we did ultimately end up giving him a $45 million contract for three years, which would basically equal $15 million a year, but we only guaranteed him 30. Technically, that would go down to about $10 million per year. and how and how that contract would probably be structured would be that his guarantees would only be for the first and second year and would give Buffalo an out right before the third. So, they wouldn’t be responsible for the remaining funds. So, don’t always look at the average annual value of said contracts because a lot of the times it’s not as deep as you think. It’s not as deep as you think. Here, dude. Cook had to stop its business man. man wants his bag. It’s true, right? It’s true. Like, so very often times I see people in the chat say, “Oh, like he should honor his contract.” Virtually every single job that you have ever worked in your entire life, you sign an employment contract, right? I don’t think that all of us feel that same way. If, for example, we feel that people that are in our exact same line of work that don’t particularly produce as well as us are getting paid more. So, I definitely like to go and so I definitely like to go out and try and humanize these guys like when they’re upset about said deal. It’s it’s no different than John and Joe working construction, right? And John, who has been on the job for 15 years, highly experienced, he’s getting paid, let’s say, 25 bucks an hour. But then Joe, who just started three years ago, and he’s a slack ass, and he’s not producing anywhere near John at the company down the road, is making $40 an hour. Then nine times out of 10, you’re going to want to at least be right around that range. So what I think when it comes into these players, I think a lot of people have this false conception that they have any sort of loyalty to a city or they have any sort of loyalty to their teammates. It’s a difficult pill to swallow, but at the end of the day, I don’t care how much like these athletes, especially when talking to media, pretend that, oh my god, my teammates, man, like I would do anything for them. When you get to professional football, all it is is co-workers. That is all it is. It’s just your co-workers, man. Right. And your team is nothing but the job that you clock into Monday through Friday. And once you start looking at it through that lens, you tend to be a bit more so you tend to show a bit more of the empathy to them. Right? So, so that’s how I have trained myself to look at things. I’m not saying that you need to look at and so I’m not saying that you need to look at it like that, but like that’s typically how I look at these things. Man, man wants his bag and has a small window to get it. He’s a badass MF. He’s durable, fast as lightning. He’s grinded hard and fixed his hands issues. I mean, listen, no one’s denying that he is not an incredible player. He is a really good player. He is um it’s funny because like you think like it’s so polarizing with this topic like there’s people and really it’s just two schools of thought like when it comes into James Cook and in my opinion I think it’s unfair. Number one it’s uh we need Cook no matter what or we are going to take a massive downward spiral in production. But then there’s people saying, “Oh, he’s horrible. He’s not that good. Running backs are a time a dozen. We could easily plug in Ray Davis or find some random rookie and we would get the exact same production.” There is something right in the middle, folks, right? Like, you don’t need to side with one of those two very polarizing schools of thought. It’s It’s kind of a mixed bag. It’s kind of uh it’s kind of a mixed bag. What’s this holding crap? Suspend him and find him for conduct detrimental for the team. Set an example. We have Mike Hardy. Man, dude, listen. Listen. I can tell you, man. Listen. It is definitely a frustrating time, especially since it’s all started midway through camp. Statement may be a question and there is no shot that Cook will will go will go anywhere else because I don’t think a single team wants him. Probably not because of his ego, though. I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say that, man. I probably could list off about 20 to 25 teams that would gladly take James Cook. I think that there are 20 to 25 teams that would take him almost immediately. And so unless you’re the Philadelphia Eagles or the Baltimore Ravens, maybe the Indianapolis Colts, I feel like every single team in the NFL would take them. Every single one of them. Uh we have Robert has come in saying, “I think holding in is the wrong way for Cook to handle this is think that this will hurt him going forward from a perception standpoint.” So the thing is is that I do try to play devil’s advocate, right? Will it? So will it, right? He’s basically going into this year with no guarantee that he’s going to have a longer career in the NFL, right? he is due $5 million base salary and he only earns that if he plays all 17 games he’s starting right or he’s on said roster. Say for example that he goes out there and he has another incredible season but by week 14 and let’s knock on wood here, right? Like let’s knock on wood here. by week 14. Um, so he like he suffers some tragic injury, like he tears his ACL. He’s never getting a bag again. He’s never getting anything again, especially with how the league looks at running backs. So, I don’t think that he’s some So, I don’t think that he’s evil by like the any stretch of the imagination. He’s definitely not evil. So, that’s kind of how I look at it. It’s just kind of like a false notion sometimes. You know what I mean? Uh, let me see what we got here. We have Patriot Self. Where did you get that autograph jersey? What site? Pristine auction, my friend. It is the best place you can go for that. Brendan Mangle has become a YouTube member. Brendan, you are the absolute man. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I don’t blame James Cook. It’s it’s tough like all right so a lot of times it’s hard from a fan especially a Bills fan to look at this situation or really like any fan in general to look right at these contract situations and not make it seem like they are the bad guy. But when you look at it from a very like realistic visual, you get it right. Like you get it. He has no guarantees. Meaning that he needs to go out this year with no sense of security and he needs to put up the exact same numbers or better than last year and avoid some sort of injury so that he could actually end up getting yet some promise that he can continue to play. So don’t think he’s being evil about this. He’s he’s looking out for himself and very much how I think a lot of you guys sort of look out for yourself in your own respective careers. There’s nothing wrong with it, but uh we will see. We have Patriots 12. Okay. How do we know that there are legit where so the fanatics are guaranteed? It is guaranteed and so I’ve used it myself. Whoever is in Cook’s ear needs to get out. He even said he went about it the wrong way during the off season. Lucas has come in. I know that this is off topic, but where is Bob? Bob is in the garage. Um, so like I said, I have not um completely finished my setup yet. So I was planning on doing my first episode tomorrow morning. Bob Bob will be back tomorrow morning. Don’t you worry about that, folks. Do not don’t worry about that even for a second. Then why not? So, why not try and find a one-year deal that gets him some extra? Um, it’s still not a sense of longevity. It’s still like not long for a career, right? Like say for example that like someone came up to you and said, “Hey, hey, I want to give you a one-year contract only for 100 like for like 130k or something along those lines, but on August 3rd in 2026, I can’t promise that you’ll be here.” It’s it’s sort of like a longevity thing. You know what I mean? It’s sort of a longevity thing. Like, so would you end up taking a job? So when someone just said, “Hey, look, so here’s your salary.” Great. But next year I can’t promise that this job uh will be around. That’s sort of what it is. Dan, are you in your new house? I am in my new house indeed. I have been putting together furniture for the past 48 hours. It’s a giant pain in the ass. I will never buy and so I will never buy furniture that needs to be assembled again. It is all going to be preassembled around here, baby. I promise you. I follow you. I get Cook wanting a good contract, but he’s wanting Seaquan money and respectfully, he’s not Sequin level. That was false. So, that was a lie. Um, I did confirm that uh with my source. That was complete So that was not true. Um, so our O line carried his career, guys. Let’s be real. I mean, did it like Yes. So we have one of the best offensive lines right in the NFL, and I love our offensive line. I really, really do. But it’s not something that I can put out as a solidified fact. I think that’s something that we should be looking at. Uh, what’s the worst that James Cook could do to hurt his future this year? We have the Billan has come in. So, have they started filming for Hard Knocks yet? Because this would make for some damn good drama for the show. Go Bills. First episode of Hard Knocks airs on Tuesday. I don’t think that we’re going to be getting the James Cook story just yet, but damn, wouldn’t that be interesting? He says, “Preassled furniture. 100 different pieces to put together per foot of furniture. Dude, I swear to you, I have some major beef for these furniture companies nowadays. Like, so I had like this table, right? It’s like a twoleg like side hallway table. Had 20 pieces. What’s the point of it? I don’t care. All right. like how handy you consider yourself to be when you’re putting together like this book book of instructions for like this big dresser. You are always going to do something wrong and have to go back six steps to fix it and then go forward. I hate putting furniture together. It is the worst thing on the face of the planet. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. Okay, we have what’s up to Sean statement. Hey Dan, it’s so true about looking at players as co-workers because that applies to practice with players like Shavers or homegrown player like Joe Andre. For sure. It’s true. It’s true. Like I just think that sometimes so we like so we are so in love with the Buffalo Bills that like we think that it’s more than just a co-worker environment and the Buffalo Bills are nothing but an employer to these guys. like they have zero loyalty to this city and to this team and to their co-workers. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s true, right? Okay, Stephen R. Bob told Cook he isn’t good enough. That’s why he sat out. Bob is going to be getting these hands sooner rather than later. You have no idea. I hear you, Dan. Got a new rocker and had to assemble it. It was a pain in the ass. It It is It’s terrible. Um, and so like, so I got like seven or eight new pieces of furniture and had to do it all. That was an absolute pain in the ass. Uh, you have to be smarter than the table to put it together. True. Very true. Congrats on the new Only Fans you and Bob started. I saw it last night and was salivating. You’re welcome, my friend. You’re welcome. All right, we have Eric. Bob is holding out. Lol. He is holding out. Bob is holding out. He wants a new contract for this year. That is something that we need to have a conversation about. Uh, sup Dan at work. Have a good one, man. That’s what I’m talking about. Uh, you should smack Bob for Cook holding out. Don’t worry, he’s going to be he’s going to be getting a lot of them. What’s up, Dan? What’s up, man? How you doing? All right, guys. That’s going to have to do it. So, like I said, I just wanted to come on here for a quick little piece of breaking news. I will be back tomorrow for my regularly scheduled stream. We we will be going for about two to three hours like normal at 9:00 a.m. EST and then also at 3 p.m. EST. So, subscribe and turn on bell notifications. Smash that like button. I am excited to finally finish up this office uh space. We uh we are going to be having yet another great episode tomorrow. I will be opening back up um the garage beer hotline for all of you to call in. And uh y’all enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Peace.

🚨 Bills RB James Cook has officially started his HOLD IN — but what triggered it NOW?! In this video, we break down everything you need to know about Cook’s decision to limit participation during training camp, what it means for his future in Buffalo, and how this could impact the Bills offense heading into the 2025 season.

🧨 Is this about a new contract?
🧊 Is there tension between Cook and the front office?
💸 Could this be James Cook’s final year in Buffalo?

We unpack the real reasons behind the timing, what insiders are saying, and whether a deal could still get done.

Hosted by Dan Mitchell | The Don Mafia Report
🔥 Daily Bills Coverage | Breaking News | Live Reactions

👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments:
Should the Bills pay James Cook now… or move on after 2025?

#BillsMafia #JamesCook #BuffaloBills #NFLNews #DonMafiaReport

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