The James Cook extension keeps looking better and better for the Buffalo Bills.
On Friday, there was contract news regarding two other NFL running backs that changed the perspective on the deal the league’s reigning rushing champ signed before he ran for over 1,600 yards in the regular season in 2025.
NFL Insider Jordan Schultz reported New York Jets running back Breece Hall, a longtime trade candidate, inked a hefty, multi-year contract with Gang Green:
Now, of course, the operative phrase in Schultz’s tweet is “up to,” before the $45.7M figure in that tweet, yet it does appear to be a sizable chunk of change for the veteran back. And for the Average Per Year (APY) advocates, that equates to $15.2M per, which, as Schultz stated, is the third-highest APY at the position.
After the least dramatic NFL contract dispute I can remember, Cook and the Bills agreed to a four-year, maximum of $46M deal last August good for an APY of $11.5M.
*AAV = Average Annual Value, the same financial measuring stick as APY.
But that wasn’t all. In related running back news, Jeremiyah Love, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 draft, signed his rookie deal with the Cardinals. And yeah, it’s quite expensive.
The price of a rookie deal for Top 5 selection at running back — or first-round pick at all — is baked into why it’s still a major struggle for me to condone selecting one very early in the draft… but that’s for another article, another time.
However, there is a case to be made for running backs earning the most money to begin their NFL careers, when they’re the most fresh. That’s precisely what’s happening here with Love and the Cardinals because of the rookie wage scale that determines initial NFL contracts by draft position.
The $53.9 million fully-guaranteed deal figure is the largest at running back in league history by a wide margin. Saquon Barkley has the second-highest fully-guaranteed dollar amount in his current contract with the Eagles at an even $36M.
The full guarantees ($15.28M) in the extension Cook signed last August now account for the 15th-highest figure at the running back position.
On the “total guarantee” front, Cook’s deal does feature a not-small $30M, the fourth-most in the NFL. ESPN’s Rich Cimini reported Hall’s deal has $29M in total guarantees. The difference between full guarantees and total guarantees is mostly straightforward. Full guarantees are dollars that absolutely will be paid to a player in time, no questions asked, right when the deal is signed.
Total guarantees represent the future money that becomes guaranteed in time — like the common clause that states “if [insert player] is on the roster at the beginning of the [insert date], THEN [insert amount] of his [insert year] base salary becomes fully guaranteed.”
Many times total guarantees are never seen by the player, even the stars, which is why I almost always originally base my thoughts on new contracts on full guarantees.
Much like a stellar Day 3 draft pick track record, regularly getting extensions done early is another trademark of the Brandon Beane era.
And how the Cook deal has “aged” compared to other running back contracts is a prime example of the financial benefits the Bills have gotten from that team-building philosophy.
