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Cook has turned in RB11 and RB6 finishes in PPR points per game the past two years. 2024 felt a bit fluky, fueled by an unsustainable TD rate. But 2025 brought more volume.
Cook should get similar usage in what should be another high-scoring Bills offense in 2026.
Middling receiving production lowers his fantasy floor and ceiling a little, but he looks like a solid top-8 RB across formats.
Customize Cook’s projection for your exact league settings inside the Draft War Room.
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.
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:
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.
Cook was one of the most effective runners in the league last year. Among 51 RBs with 90+ carries, he ranked:
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.)
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Ty Johnson INACTIVE
Ty Johnson INACTIVE
Bills RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) is inactive for tonight's game vs. the Lions. That should mean a few extra passing-down snaps for RB James Cook, who was a must-start anyway.
Ty Johnson Questionable For Week 2
Ty Johnson Questionable For Week 2
Bills RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) was limited in practice all week and is listed as questionable for Thursday night's game vs. the Lions. With Johnson out last week, RB James Cook ran a route on 50% of pass plays -- up just a shade from last year's 46% route rate. Cook, of course, is a must-start regardless of Johnson's Week 2 status.
Ty Johnson INACTIVE, Boosting James Cook
Ty Johnson INACTIVE, Boosting James Cook
Bills RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) is inactive for today’s game vs. the Texans. He ran a route on 36% of Buffalo’s pass plays and drew a 6.7% target share last year, so his absence should mean more passing-down work for RB James Cook.
Ty Johnson Questionable For Week 1
Ty Johnson Questionable For Week 1
Bills RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) is listed as questionable for this weekend’s game vs. the Texans. He only got in a limited practice on Friday, so he’s seemingly on the wrong side of 50/50. Johnson ran a route on 36% of Buffalo’s pass plays and drew a 6.7% target share last year. His absence would likely mean a boost in RB James Cook’s passing-down work.
Receiving Uptick Solidifies James Cook's Round 1 Profile
Receiving Uptick Solidifies James Cook's Round 1 Profile
The offseason arrival of OC Pete Carmichael sparked plenty of speculation that we'd see more receiving work for Buffalo RBs in 2026. Training camp has supported that notion so far.
James Cook
Ray Davis
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