Buffalo's playoff hopes hinge on James Cook just as much as Josh Allen. His explosive runs and consistency have become the stabilizing force fueling their wins.
If the Buffalo Bills are going to find their way going deep into the playoffs, the blueprint is becoming impossible to ignore. The offense needs to run through James Cook.
In a season where Josh Allen continues to shoulder a massive load, Cook has emerged as the stabilizing force this offense desperately needed. Against New England, that balance made all the difference. Cook finished the afternoon with 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. He even added a receiving touchdown for good measure. More importantly, he once again crossed the 100-yard mark, a threshold that continues to tell the story of Buffalo’s success.
This season, in games that Cook surpasses 100 yards rushing, Buffalo is 7-1. They're 3-3 in all other contests.
Going back to Sunday against the Patriots, the most impressive part of Cook’s performance wasn’t just the numbers. It was the trust. Down 21–0 late in the first half, the Bills could have panicked. Most teams would have. With an elite quarterback under center, the temptation is always there to abandon the run and let him try to save the day. Buffalo didn’t do that. Instead, they leaned into Cook and stayed patient.
That patience changed the game. On the drive before halftime, Cook set the tone, touching the ball on five of the drive's seven players. He helped march the team down field and capped it off with a five-yard touchdown reception that finally put Buffalo on the board. It was the spark that flipped momentum and reminded everyone that this offense doesn’t have to be one-dimensional to be dangerous.
Cook’s rise this season hasn’t come out of nowhere, but it has gone largely unnoticed outside of Buffalo. Entering Week 17, he's just 28 yards behind Jonathan Taylor for the league lead in rushing after having 447 yards over the last four games. His 271 rushing attempts already mark a career high, and he’s well on pace to approach 300 by season’s end. For a player who once felt like a complementary piece in the offense, that workload speaks volumes.
Historically, Cook is also approaching rare company. He’s on the verge of passing Thurman Thomas's single-season career high in rushing yards. Once he does that, he'll trail only O.J. Simpson, who has the three-highest rushing seasons in team history. And while the talk about league-wide stars like Derrick Henry or Christian McCaffrey dominate national conversations, Cook continues to produce at a level that belongs in that group, even if the recognition hasn’t followed.
The Bills aren’t where they are right now without him. Allen may still be the one who delivers the knockout punches, but Cook has been responsible for keeping games within reach and closing the door when Buffalo has needed control. In an offense light on reliable wide receiver options, Cook has become the perfect counterweight — a player who can punish defenses on the ground and make them pay in the passing game.
As the season tightens and margins shrink, one thing is clear: the Bills’ best path forward is trusting James Cook and letting him keep doing what he’s quietly done all year.