Buffalo BillsOur read
Written Oct 19, from his facts through last season
Cook has never been a goal-line back until now, and that is the whole change. He is taking 43% of Buffalo's red-zone carries and targets this season, RB11 among backs with 20-plus touches, and 46% of the carries and targets inside the ten. Five touchdowns in five games followed. Last year the red-zone share of his own touches sat at just 16.9%, RB59, and he still finished RB6. Now the scoring chances are his, and they are stacking on top of a runner who is beating expectations by 0.9 yards a carry.
The weekly shape backs it up. He has played all five weeks, 17.9 points a game, and the worst of them was a 9.9 in week 1 of 2026. Only two weeks have come in under our preseason pace of 14.7. Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael Jr. are new to calling this offense, but through five weeks nothing has knocked him out of the scoring range. The 11 targets are the soft spot: with 7 catches and 31 receiving yards, a week where the touchdowns dry up can sink him fast, the way the 1.5-point week 18 of 2025 did.
The availability record is the quiet reason he is worth 221 points on our board and RB8 for us. Three straight seasons at 16 or 17 games, no designation since before week 1 of 2026, no missed weeks. Keep him in the lineup through the week 7 of 2026 bye and beyond. The downside that shows up in the numbers is the thin target volume, which costs a receiving back like him when the scores stop, so if weeks 6 and 7 of 2026 come scoreless, that is the moment to look closer. Until then he is an every-week start.