And there you have it! James Cook is not only under contract for this year, but for the next four after that. The Buffalo Bills reached an agreement with their Pro Bowl running back on Wednesday. The NFL Network's Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport reported it is a four-year extension worth $48 million, $30 million of that is fully guaranteed. Look at it as $12 million in AAV, $7.5 million of that guaranteed.
Cook is entering his fourth NFL season out of Georgia. He turns 26 at the end of September, meaning he will be that age for the vast majority of this season. Now with his four-year extension being added onto this, he will be 30 years old in the final season of it. Cook does not become a free agent again until the new league year in 2030. Again, the Bills had to do this, but they may come to regret the deal.
We saw first-hand what happened to his older brother Dalvin Cook in the middle part of his career. Cook was a phenomenal player at Florida State and a dominant one for the Minnesota Vikings. He had a major injury in his career, but came out of school a year before his younger brother did. Simply put, Dalvin Cook became a shell of himself after his fourth-straight Pro Bowl season with the Vikings.
While I will say that I like James Cook's chances of playing longer than his brother did, it is a tall ask.
Breaking: 2x Pro Bowl RB James Cook and the #Bills reached a four-year, $48 million contract extension with $30M guaranteed, his agents Zac Hiller & Matt Leist of LAA tell me and @RapSheet.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 13, 2025
Despite logging just 48% of snaps last season, Cook will now make $12M a year and look… pic.twitter.com/stV1pFJ1gN
This is because Georgia did a phenomenal job of sharing the workload while Cook starred in college.
James Cook extension offers high risk, high reward for the Buffalo Bills
Look. I am totally in favor of this deal for the first half of it. What you have to remember is Cook is still playing out the final year of his rookie contract out of Georgia with Buffalo this season. This may be their best chance to date to finally get back to the Super Bowl, and maybe win one. Kansas City looks vulnerable. I may like Baltimore more than them, but these Ravens are still unproven on the big stage.
From Buffalo's standpoint, the Bills' front office has to look at it from this perspective. As long as they can get three more great seasons out of Cook from 2025 through 2027, then it really is not going to matter what he does in the final two years of the extension. Yes, they may have to swallow $15 million in fully-guaranteed money, but it may be closer to $7.5 million, based on how well Cook does perform.
This is the price of doing business. Cook was not going to put pen to paper without some kind of fully guaranteed money. He may only play 48 percent of the team's snaps on offense, but he is highly productive when he is out there. This could lengthen his prime further than what we saw out of his older brother. That being said, Buffalo is in win-now mode, and Cook has to be a reason for their wins.
Together with Josh Allen at quarterback, Buffalos stands its best shot of hoisting a Lombardi to date.