{"id":289797,"date":"2025-08-15T10:01:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/289797\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T10:01:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:01:24","slug":"mike-florio-sounds-alarm-on-buffalo-bills-james-cook-contract-holdout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/289797\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Florio Sounds Alarm on Buffalo Bills\u2019 James Cook Contract Holdout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Florio Sounds Alarm on Buffalo Bills\u2019 James Cook Contract Holdout<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Less than a month remains until the Buffalo Bills kick off their season against the Baltimore Ravens, but it remains to be seen whether or not they\u2019ll do so with James Cook in the starting backfield.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Although Cook is at training camp, the two-time Pro Bowler isn\u2019t practicing as he awaits a new contract. Cook, who turns 26 on Sept. 25, is in the final season of his rookie deal and fresh off rushing for 1,009 yards and a league-leading 16 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Cook wants a new contract, and the Bills seemingly want to wait. The two sides remain far enough apart that Cook hasn\u2019t practiced in over a week, and there is no reason to believe that he\u2019ll suit up against the Chicago Bears next Sunday night.<\/p>\n

NBC Sports\u2019 Mike Florio has had enough, writing on Monday that both sides need to make nice and end their \u201cbizarre chess match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it\u2019s not about what Cook wants,\u201d Florio wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s about what he won\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bills should make him an offer [that he] won\u2019t refuse,\u201d Florio continued. \u201cAnd then they should be careful to properly re-acclimate him to the game before he risks injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook is owed $5.27 million this season, though he is not guaranteed to hit unrestricted free agency. The Bills can apply the franchise tag on Cook upon season\u2019s end and attempt to keep him in Buffalo through the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bills have a choice,\u201d Florio wrote. \u201cThey can milk the rookie wage scale and do what they had hoped to do with Cook, or they can recognize that, if they want to win a Super Bowl, it makes sense to take care of one of their best players, even if they currently don\u2019t \u2018have\u2019 to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barring a trade, second-year running back Ray Davis would likely move into Cook\u2019s starting spot if the latter refuses to play. Davis rushed for 442 yards and scored six touchdowns from scrimmage as a rookie.<\/p>\n

Related: Dolphins Must Pursue Devin Singletary Trade After Alexander Mattison Injury<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Shedeur Sanders Should Be Disappointed After Browns Waive Fan Favorite Receiver<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Aug 11, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Florio Sounds Alarm on Buffalo Bills\u2019 James Cook Contract Holdout originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Less than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[117,215,214,53,2086,391,7,3027,5745,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-289797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-bills","10":"tag-buffalo","11":"tag-buffalo-bills","12":"tag-buffalobills","13":"tag-chicago-bears","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-james-cook","16":"tag-mike-florio","17":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115032207171444755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}