When the Buffalo Bills decided to not bring back Devin Singletary during free agency, it opened up the doors for second-year running back James Cook. With the Bills only signing Damien Harris and Latavius Murray to one-year deals, it allows Cook to keep growing as a player and takes the pressure off of him to have to carry the ball in the trenches. As a potential premier pass-catching back, Cook is showing flashes early on in training camp.
While there is focus across the NFL on the potential Dalvin Cook to the New York Jets move, the Bills are more focused on helping the development of Dalvin's younger brother. While having the duo of both Cook brothers would be nice, the Bills are sticking to their philosophy of developing their young guys. As of right now, the plan is going accordingly.
He has already been praised by offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and is viewed as a potential “three-down back”, according to Dorsey per Joe Buscaglia. Cook is looking to become the productive back that they have lacked since the days of LeSean McCoy. The Bills have not had a pass-catching back who can serve as an easy out for Josh Allen and it looks like that is who Cook can become.
On day four of Bills training camp, Cook ran an impressive wheel route which got him into the endzone, in which Micah Hyde was in coverage, and the media has been talking about how he has been one of the most dominant players through training camp. According to Ajay Cybulski, the Bills offense has been putting together a good amount of screen plays out of the backfield which features Cook.
As the Bills prepare to get the pads on starting on Monday, there will be more of an understanding of what this offense can do with Cook in the backfield. The former second round pick will look to continue his momentum going into the middle of training camp and leading up to week one.