Buffalo Bills Criticized for Not Locking in Key Player

The Buffalo Bills are heading into a new season with a lot of wind on their backs, because they have MVP-winning quarterback in Josh Allen heading up their lineup. The Bills have other solid players, too, so they’ve put together the pieces that they hope will finally get the team a Super Bowl win for the first time in their franchise’s history. They’re tired of losing to the Kansas City Chiefs, and it’s time for a new AFC king to take reign.

But, going into the 2025 season, one NFL expert is criticizing the team for dragging their feet on one key player. He even says they could be “missing out on one of the few non-Allen reasons for their success.”

Buffalo Bills Holdout Called Out By NFL Analyst

In a June 16 feature for Bleacher Report, Alex Ballentine lays out the best- and worst-case case scenarios for each team in the NFL heading into the new season. “It’s an offensive league and every front office goes into the offseason with a vision for how it will improve the unit for the next season,” he stated in the feature.

He added, “Just look at how much money and resources teams are willing to pour into finding a quarterback, building an offensive line and retaining a star receiver.”

So, sometimes it’s interesting to look at what could happen, both good and bad, during the season and get dramatic. Of course, these are just guesses, so take them for what they are, some fun predictions and observations. But, it’s also a helpful tool to brace for some possibilities in the season.

For the Bills, his worst-case scenario is that a James Cook “holdout leads to” a “watered-down version of 2024”

“James Cook had nearly 400 more scrimmage yards than any other player on the offense,” Ballentine added. “His emergence as a dual-threat running back has been one of the reasons Brandon Beane deserves credit for putting together a supporting cast that works around Allen.”

So, Ballentine adds that one of the only remaining questions for Buffalo is Cook. “The fourth-year back showed up to minicamp, but there’s definitely still tension as he seeks a new contract,” he stated in the piece.

Then, Ballentine warns that Cook is going into the last year of his rookie contract, and that “running back hold outs can get messy. They typically have a smaller window to get paid, and the Bills haven’t been willing to give him a new deal to this point.”

He concludes, “If those tensions turn into a legitimate holdout, the Bills could be missing out on one of the few non-Allen reasons for their success.”

Buffalo Bills’ Best-Case Scenario

On the flip-side, the best-case scenario is that Allen get a solid supporting cast around him. Even so, while Ballentine notes that Allen “has proved he doesn’t need an elite supporting cast to create an elite offense,” it doesn’t hurt.

“Dalton Kincaid, Shakir and Keon Coleman are all still early in their NFL careers,” he adds. “If each of them takes the next step and becomes an even more reliable target for Allen, then the team should be able to make a run at being the top offense in the league in every category.”