All throughout this blog, it's important to occasionally stop and remind yourself this: the Bills will be fine. The Bills will probably be fine.
They've got a good roster, and a good coach, and the reigning league MVP. They play in a pretty tame division and will, realistically, only have to beat 1.5 good teams to find themselves in another AFC Championship game. The Bills will probably be fine.
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But if the Bills aren't going to be fine (which is silly, because they definitely will), my guess is that it'll have something to do with the James Cook contract situation. Cook's been looking for a new contract this offseason, and has missed out on (voluntary) OTAs because of it. The 'situation' explains why he ended up on NFL.com's list of guys who are headed into 'make-or-break' seasons with their current teams. Remember: they'll be fine.
James Cook is the biggest Bills question mark heading into the 2025 NFL season
"Cook enters the new season with uncertainty long-term. He’s made clear his desire for a new contract, but the Bills don’t appear to have budged, even after his second straight 1,000-yard season, in which he averaged nearly five yards per carry and rushed for a league-high 16 touchdowns. So, Cook is staying away from voluntary OTAs. To fully convince Buffalo to invest in him with a new deal, Cook will almost certainly need to outperform his production over the last two years, which means posting something like 1,200-plus rushing yards and double-digit rushing touchdowns, along with 300-plus receiving yards and a handful of receiving scores. That's a high bar for a back who has already done enough to deserve consideration for an extension. If Buffalo doesn't pay Cook, somebody else will, given that he maintains the performance he's demonstrated over the last two seasons."
This is way less about the impact of Cook's absence on the team – which it doesn't seem like anyone's actually all that concerned about longterm – and more about what happens if he hits the open market next season, which is extremely a bridge to cross when we get there. And maybe this is all just a lazy attempt to deny the impending contract mess, but that's what you get in early June. Real panic is reserved for August.