With the Buffalo Bills now up 1.5 games over the New England Patriots, they have an excellent chance to reclaim the AFC East from them with about half of the NFL regular season remaining.
While the team works to address its deficiencies during its bye week, one bright spot on the team has really taken his game to the next level. Let's take a look at how the Bills' No.1 running back is playing better than he did last year.
James Cook isn't bothered when facing more loaded boxes
While defensive players have focused on putting seven or more in the box to stop James Cook, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound athlete has been hitting the holes and has tallied better stats this season than a year ago when he won the NFL rushing title.
Cook rushed for 537 yards over six games last season at 5.0 yards per carry, while through six games this season, the talented back has 627 yards rushing at 5.4 yards per carry.
During the same time last year, Cook totaled his runs with a loaded box at 89.7%, while averaging 5.08 yards per carry and gaining 10 or more yards 12.4% of the time. This year, teams are stacking the box against Cook at a slightly higher rate of 92.3%, yet he's averaged 5.34 yards per carry with a 10-or-more-yard run rate of 21.9%.
Despite more teams loading the box to try to stop Cook, he is still 3rd in the league with 117 carries and 627 rushing yards behind Bijan Robinson and Kenneth Walker.
The running back is also tied for 6th in the league with six touchdowns and 5th with 5.4 yards per carry. This is exactly why Brandon Beane has made it a priority every year to maintain continuity on the Bills' top-notch offensive line they've had since 2020 by paying all the starters lowball money to stay in Buffalo before the market prices rise.
1 main issue still remains to be fixed
With the good comes the not-so-good news: at the start of the season, Cook was having fumbling issues, particularly with defenders punching the ball out of his hands on long runs. But before the Raiders game last Sunday, head coach Joe Brady challenged Cook, hinted at reducing his workload if he didn't fix his fumbling issues.
Cook didn't complain and instead put the coach's threat into action. Against the Raiders, he rushed for 95 yards on 22 carries, but more importantly, he was more disciplined with the ball in his hands, as he made sure to grab the ball with two hands when running and after being tackled to the ground.
As a result, the running back had zero fumbles, making him, his offensive line, and also his coach proud that he took his coach's advice seriously and put it into action.
We are almost halfway through the regular season, and Cook knows he has even better football ahead of him with the chance to set career highs, run through those loaded boxes, and potentially help the Bills reach their first Super Bowl title in franchise history.
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