Nobody will mistake anyone but Josh Allen as the best player on the Buffalo Bills roster, but quietly over the last few seasons, one of Allen’s teammates on the offensive side of the ball has been emerging as a bonafide star at his position. And while it looked like a bit over the offseason as if his presence in Buffalo was something of a question mark, James Cook put the contract extension drama behind him and has picked up right where he left off in 2024.
Since the beginning of the 2024 season, Cooks leads the league with 21 rushing touchdowns. For good measure, he’s also added 1,410 rushing yards (9th in the NFL in that time period), 44 receptions and 2 touchdowns in the passing game as well. But even beyond the stats, Cook is making a profound impact on the Buffalo Bills offense, which has scored an average of 31.3 points per game over their last 21 regular season games.
Josh Allen is ready to make sure everyone else is seeing what he’s seeing on a daily basis.
“I urge everyone to watch him when he doesn’t have the ball,” Allen said of Cook during a recent press conference. “He’s just as exciting to watch. He’s constantly following the ball, constantly turning his head and running, trying to spring a block for whoever does have the ball. He’s an all-time teammate and he’s gotten everything that he’s deserved. He’s going out there still and acting like he’s got something to prove, which is awesome to see.”
What James Cook still has to prove is that he’s on the upper echelon of running backs, because it doesn’t seem as though he’s gotten that respect just yet.
James Cook Strives For Continued Improvement
With 401 rushing yards, James Cook is one of just two running backs — along with Indianapolis Colts star Jonathan Taylor — who have over 400 yards through the first four weeks of the season. Cook’s five rushing touchdowns top the NFL, as do his 21 first down conversions, and of the 23 running backs with at least 50 rush attempts this year, Cook is one of only six averaging at least 5 yards per carry.
Despite the hot start and the lucrative contract that Cook signed back in August, don’t expect the 26-year-old running back to rest on his laurels.
“The game shows I’m going to just keep improving,” Cook said after Buffalo’s Week 4 win versus New Orleans. “I’ve just been locked in, trying to find the right reads to make a 5-yard run into an 80-yard run. That’s been my mentality. I’m going to stay like that.”
This may be Cook’s mentality, but according to some of his Bills teammates, it’s something they’ve actually seen him improve upon over the last two seasons.
“The biggest thing is how he’s reading our blocks,” Bills center Connor McGovern said of Cook’s evolving game. “There could be a mid-zone where I don’t get my hat in front on the play side, and he knows, ‘All right, I gotta cut back.’ He presses as far as he can up to the line of scrimmage to get that (linebacker) to bite. Then he cuts back for a big gain.”
“It’s something special,” Bills guard O’Cyrus Torrence added. “I know I haven’t seen a running back at that level of consistency so early in the season.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Josh Allen Calls Emerging Bills Star ‘An All-Time Teammate’ appeared first on Heavy Sports.