James Cook: The Best Running Back in the NFL You Haven’t Heard Of

CNN
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I want you to think about the best running back in the NFL. If you’re following the league this season, your mind should immediately turn to Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley. This guy is the very definition of a “stud”.

Yes, Barkley has racked up the yards – he’s quickly approaching 2,000 – this season, but it’s also his long breakaway runs.

Barkley is one of only two players in the league with four touchdown passes of 40 yards or more.

The other is Buffalo Bills running back James Cook. Cook doesn’t have the star power of Barkley. Hell, he’s not even the star of the Bills’ offense: quarterback Josh Allen is.

Cook, however, is secretly preparing for one of the most hidden great seasons in NFL history. He’s one of the main reasons why the Bills won last week against the New England Patriots and why they are serious contenders to finally win a Super Bowl.

What do I mean?

I’m not saying Cook’s season is one of the best ever for a running back. He’s not even close to having one. Cook has about half as many total yards as Barkely, for example.

What I’m saying is that few running backs have made as many attempts to recover the ball as Cook.

The Bills runner has only run the ball 182 times this year. Barkley, once again used as a reference, ran the ball over 300 times.

Yet, in those attempts, Cook managed to throw for 14 touchdowns and over 900 yards.

You know how many players in NFL history have had seasons where they ran for as many touchdowns and rushing yards with as few carries as Cook?

The answer is one: Cook is literally the only one at this point.

Arguably Pro Football Hall of Fame Gale Sayers’ famous 1965 rookie campaign for the Chicago Bears is the most comparable in terms of rushing. Like Cook so far, he has played in 14 games and thrown for 867 yards and 14 touchdowns on 166 attempts.

The point here is not to say that Cook is Sayers. The Chicago Bears legend, after all, was a rookie who also returned kicks and had about double Cook’s receiving yards.

I’m just pointing out that Buffalo man is doing something special here.

Indeed, Cook is currently among the best in the league in terms of football. His 5.1 yards per carry is 10th best (among qualifiers). He’s tied for the league lead in rushing touchdowns with Barkley’s teammate, quarterback Jalen Hurts, and Baltimore Ravens sensation Derrick Henry (whose team has already played its Week 17 game) .

Combined with the much-heralded Allen, Cook forms the league’s only backfield with two players in the league’s top 10 in rushing touchdowns and yards per attempt.

If they score a rushing touchdown in one of their two remaining games, the Bills will score more this year than any other Buffalo team in history.

This is what makes the bills such a dangerous offense. They don’t just pass with authority; they run with authority. The Bills run the ball on a greater percentage of their plays (48%) than the league average (45%).

When you have a well-balanced offense, it makes the opposing defense’s job much more difficult. The running game has not played as big a role in Buffalo’s overall offense in any of its playoff campaigns during the Allen era.

We are a long way from 2020 or 2021, when the Bills only completed 41% of their offensive plays.

The main reason for this change is the emergence of Cook. Cook is a great halfback to complement Allen’s skills at fullback – as I’ve already pointed out.

This is only Allen’s second season in the league when he is not leading his team in rushing touchdowns.

And Cook makes an incredibly high percentage of his share with plays starting long distance from the end zone. As I mentioned at the top, he is one of only two players this year to have four touchdown passes of 40 yards or more.

Cook is already the only Bills player in franchise history with four touchdown passes of 40 yards or more in a single season.

The one Cook had last week put the Bills on the scoreboard, after they fell behind the generally inept Patriots by 14 points. The average team loses about 87% of the time when trailing by 14 points early in the second quarter, which is where Buffalo is.

Cook helped spark the Bills who also scored the next 17 points. He did it while Allen was having one of his worst games of the season.

Pretty good for a Cook player who isn’t the best on his team or even his offense.

I mean, it’s obviously that Cook run where he went 46 yards for a touchdown a little later in the second quarter.

It was his second 40+ yard touchdown in as many weeks, and boy did I enjoy both.

It feels like the Bills can gain a yard whenever they need to at this point – at least if they have more than one play to do so. In fact, they’ve scored a touchdown on every possession this season, either on their first down at their opponent’s 1-yard line or if they have more than one opportunity to have the ball at the 1-yard line. opponent’s yard in a given possession.

In Super Bowl XXVII, the Bills had three opportunities early in the second quarter to field the ball from the Dallas Cowboys’ one-yard line. If they had scored, the game probably would have been tied at 14 points.

On 3rd and goal, running back Kenneth Davis appeared poised to score until he was relieved by Cowboys linebacker Ken Norton Jr.

The Bills would fail to score on this possession and would be outscored 52-17 in the game. They would also lose to the Cowboys in the next Super Bowl.