The Buffalo Bills open training camp a week from today, and running back James Cook isn’t happy. A year ago, Cook flourished when new offensive coordinator Joe Brady introduced the team to the concept of handing the ball off. Now Cook would like to be compensated for his services before he falls off the running-back cliff, just as his brother Dalvin did in 2023. James Cook is no dummy. He wants his money while he can still get it.
For other teams, this would be a fairly garden-variety standoff that results in a camp hold-in before both sides agree to a deal sometime in August. But this is Buffalo, where any ripple in the waves causes Bills fan to have Bills fan thoughts. You never want to have Bills fan thoughts. A minor contract dispute with the RB1 begets thoughts about the rest of the team’s backfield depth, which begets thoughts about Josh Allen running the ball himself far too often, which begets thoughts about the passing game, which begets DEAR CHRIST WILL WE EVER WIN A SUPER BOWL OR DID I STICK AROUND THIS FROZEN WASTELAND MY WHOLE LIFE FOR NOTHING?
The primary Bills fan thought this entire offseason, even before Cook asked for a raise, has been Who will Allen give the ball to? The idea of losing Cook, who scored 16 touchdowns a year ago, makes the depth problem feel even more acute. Bills fans know that Cook is the team’s best running back by far. They also know that they need their running game to be as prosperous as it was a year ago, because it allowed Allen to post huge numbers with a wideout corps that was demonstrably thin. It didn’t matter. The Bills' season still ended with them watching the Super Bowl from an ice shanty, and fans now fear this season will end exact the same way.
That’s because the skill position rooms remain underwhelming. Cook is their only good back. Tight end Dalton Kincaid is coming off of his worst season. And then there’s the wideout room, where a freshly paid Khalil Shakir is still Allen’s best (only) downfield option. The other receivers playing alongside him are uninspiring. Let’s meet them quickly:
- Former Charger Joshua Palmer, who’s good for scoring the occasional red-zone touchdown as his QB’s fourth read on a play
- Former Jet/Brown Elijah Moore, who’s more famous being disgruntled than for actual on-field production
- Curtis Samuel, who I only realized was still in the league once I started writing this post
- Second-year man Keon Coleman, who missed the last four weeks of 2024 with an injury and who, according to PFF, ranked "in the 0th percentile in separation rate and the second percentile against single coverage." I didn’t know there was a 0th percentile. I didn’t even know “0th” was the proper ordinal to use. It probably isn’t
- Laviska Shenault Jr., who had like one cool game playing for the Jaguars four years ago
The Bills had every opportunity to deepen this corps over the offseason, particularly come draft time. Instead, general manager and expressed anal gland Brandon Beane decided to spring for a defender with his first five picks. That includes cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who has been accused of sexual assault in a civil suit. After that draft, Beane got all "how dare you" about the no-wideouts thing:
We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. You just saw us lead the league in points when you add all the postseason. No one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions… Bitching about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I’ve ever heard.
Objectively speaking, Beane has a point. The Bills’ offense really WAS that good a year ago, and the front office’s foremost priority this offseason needed to be defense, lest Patrick Mahomes strike them down in the postseason yet again.
But this is Buffalo, where objectivity is helpless in the face of well-earned fatalism. Four Super Bowl losses. No AFC titles this century. 9/11 fan Sean McDermott still in charge of things. This may still be one of the best teams in the league, with an incredible O-line and one of the best QBs of his generation at the helm. But it’s still a team built to the same specifications as each of the past five years, none of which bore championship fruit.
So while Beane’s instincts may have been on point, you can understand why Buffalonians feel otherwise. Josh Allen can’t do everything himself, and yet this organization keeps assuming that he can. If James Cook can’t make them pay for that negligence, the rest of the AFC probably will.
