James Cook Fantasy Overview

Production & Fantasy Finishes

Cook carried 309 times for 1,621 yards and 12 TDs last year. The carries and yards were career highs. Cook led the league in rushing yards and tied for fifth among RBs in rushing scores.

He wasn’t as busy in the passing game, finishing with 33 catches for 291 yards and 2 TDs. Those marks ranked 23rd, 16th, and 14th, respectively, among RBs.

Omitting Week 18 -- when he was pulled after just 2 snaps -- Cook finished RB6 in PPR points per game, RB5 in half-PPR, and RB5 in non-PPR.

He scored as a top-12 PPR RB in 10 of 16 full outings and fell outside the top-26 just once.

Usage & Role

Cook’s 60.9% snap rate through Week 17 ranked 16th among RBs. He ceded some passing-down work to RB Ty Johnson, finishing with a 39.1% route rate that ranked 25th at the position.

But Cook’s 309 carries ranked third league-wide. He also finished:

• Eighth in carries inside the 10-yard line (26)
• Eighth in carries inside the 5 (16)
• Seventh in expected rushing TDs (10.5)

Cook ranked just 26th among RBs with 40 targets but still finished RB7 in expected PPR points per game and RB5 in half-PPR through Week 17.

Efficiency & Regression

Cook was one of the most effective runners in the league last year. Among 51 RBs with 90+ carries, he ranked:

• second in yards per carry
• second in rush yards over expected per attempt
• 18th in yards after contact per attempt
• 18th in missed tackles forced per attempt
• ninth in Pro Football Focus rush grade

He wasn’t as good as a receiver, ranking 20th in yards per route and 25th in PFF receiving grade among 40 RBs with 30+ targets.

Cook ultimately scored 3.1 more PPR points per game than expected through Week 17, making him the fifth-biggest overachiever at his position. (He scored 4.2 more points per game than expected in 2024.)

Offensive Context

The Bills ranked fourth in points last year, their sixth straight top-6 finish. They also ranked fourth in total yards.

It was a run-leaning offense, finishing:

• 31st in pass rate
• 30th in neutral pass rate
• 28th in pass rate over expected

The offensive line was one of the best in the league, ranking first in ESPN run-block win rate, sixth in PFF run-blocking grade, and second in adjusted line yards.

Historical Production & Trends

Cook has improved his production across each of his four NFL seasons.

Cook’s advanced metrics have jumped over the past two seasons. After averaging 2.83 yards after contact per attempt and 0.17 missed tackles forced per attempt in 2022 and 2023, he’s up to 3.20 and 0.19 over the last two years.

Most importantly, Cook got a big bump in usage last year. His 2024 was unsustainable: 16.7 PPR points per game (RB11) on 13.1 expected (RB27). While Cook again out-produced his expected points last year, finishing RB7 in expected points per game makes him much easier to count on going forward.

Injury History & Durability

Cook has missed just one game through four NFL seasons, with a toe injury in 2024.

He also dodged serious injury in college, missing just a couple of games with ankle and shoulder issues.

Projected Role & Competition

Cook is back in Buffalo for the second season of the four-year, $46 million deal he signed last August. There are only four active RB contracts with a higher overall value.

The Bills made no moves in the backfield this offseason, returning Ty Johnson and Ray Davis behind Cook. Johnson took some passing-down work from Cook last year, posting a 34% route rate and 29 targets through Week 17. But he averaged just 2.3 carries per game over that span. Davis averaged only 2.3 carries and 0.7 targets per game through Week 17.

Cook should play a similar role this season, dominating RB carries while seeing the lead share of passing-down work.

Supporting Cast

The Bills return QB Josh Allen and added WR D.J. Moore, but expect this offense to lean run again in 2026.

Four of five starters are back on the offensive line, with Alec Anderson expected to replace David Edwards at LG. Edwards left for New Orleans in free agency after ranking 20th among 64 guards in PFF’s 2025 run-blocking grades. Anderson went undrafted in 2022 and has played just 479 snaps since.

That spot will be worth monitoring this summer, but this projects as one of the better run-blocking O-lines.

Coaching & Offensive Scheme

The Bills fired Sean McDermott in January, ending a nine-year run as HC. The team replaced him by promoting Joe Brady.

Brady spent the last 2.5 seasons as Buffalo’s OC, taking over for Ken Dorsey midway through the 2023 campaign. The Bills went run-heavy over the second half of that season, posting a 48.2% pass rate and 52.0% neutral pass rate. Here’s where Buffalo has ranked in those metrics the last two years:

We’ll see what the departure of defensive-minded McDermott means for the run-pass split, but we’re expecting this to remain a run-centric offense in 2026.

Cook has notably averaged 17.9 PPR points across 38 full regular-season games with Brady calling plays.

We’ll also see what kind of impact new OC Pete Carmichael has. Carmichael spent 19 of the last 20 seasons with Sean Payton, first in New Orleans and then in Denver the past two. That includes two years with Brady in 2017 and 2018.

Brady will continue to call plays in 2026, but Carmichael figures to have his fingerprints on the offense.

Paths to Ceiling

Cook’s performance and pay lock him into a heavy workload on the high-scoring Bills. An efficient runner with a big goal-line role, Cook is plenty capable of another top-6 fantasy season in 2026.

He’d need a spike in passing-game usage to compete with the guys at the very top of the position.

Risk Factors

Despite big fantasy seasons the past two years, Cook ranks outside the top-18 RBs in targets, catches, and receiving yards over that span. That makes him more reliant on rushing efficiency and TDs than most of the other backs going in the first two rounds of fantasy drafts.

If he falters in either department this season, Cook could fall to high-end RB2 status.