The Buffalo Bills rolled past the New York Jets with a convincing 35-8 win in Week 18, but the attention quickly shifted to Bills’ running back James Cook and his limited game time. Cook entered the Week 18 game with a narrow lead in the 2025 NFL rushing title race. With a record within reach, many expected Buffalo to ride its star back. But Cook finished with just two carries for 15 yards before head coach Sean McDermott shut him down. Then, after the game, McDermott explained his decision with clear reasoning.

“I’m sure if he [Cook] got hurt, people would make me walk home or burn my car, I don’t know,” Sean McDermott said in the post-game presser. “That’s the give and take of the week, of, ‘okay, how long do we go [with the starters]?’ I gave him [Cook] a quarter. As I told Joe [Bills OC] during the week, I was like, ‘Alright, he’s [Cook] going to have a quarter and no more.’

So, Sean McDermott framed his decision as a risk-versus-reward call rather than a lack of faith in James Cook. But his initial plan with Cook did not even last until the kickoff of the Week 18 game. As McDermott evaluated the broader context, playoff positioning, and what was happening elsewhere around the league, he decided less was more for Cook.

“As I got closer and closer to the game, I’m like, ‘ah, a quarter’s too much,’” McDermott continued. “So I’m probably not a great gambler in the casinos, but it helped when we knew what Jonathan Taylor [did], and the afternoon he had. But we also wanted to know where, in terms of tonight’s game, that could go.”

So, James Cook only touched the ball on Buffalo’s first two offensive snaps in the Week 18 game. He recorded two carries of 15 yards before Sean McDermott replaced him with RB Ray Davis. But those two carries pushed Cook’s season total to 1,621 rushing yards, and it kept him alive in the NFL rushing title race.

The Bills’ RB has been battling Indianapolis Colts RB Jonathan Taylor (1,585 yards) and Baltimore Ravens RB Derrick Henry (1,595 yards) for the rushing crown all season. With the Bills and Colts finished with their regular season, Cook now holds a 36-yard lead over Taylor.

Sean McDermott still wants James Cook to win the NFL rushing title race

This season, Buffalo’s running game has largely run through James Cook, which has also raised questions about him being underpaid. Now, Cook was only 100 yards ahead of Derrick Henry in the NFL’s rushing yards race before the Ravens’ Sunday Night game. Still, Sean McDermott made it clear the decision to limit Cook’s snaps wasn’t about ignoring the RB’s achievements.

“I still feel like it was – I pray he wins it, he deserves it,” Sean McDermott said, reinforcing his belief in Cook’s season-long performance. “[We] felt like we could get him to 150 [yards], 150 in terms of the spread between him and Derrick Henry. And we’ll see. We did the best we could, and we’re trying to be fair to James, and yet take care of him and be fair to the team as well.”

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The Bills signed Cook for a four-year, $48 million extension this offseason after a breakout year in which he rushed for 16 touchdowns. He also shared the league’s rushing crown with Derrick Henry and Detroit Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs last season. Apart from all those achievements, Cook has also been one of the league’s most durable backs, missing just one game on Oct. 14, 2024, due to a toe injury. Still, Sean McDermott wasn’t willing to test the RB’s durability with the postseason looming.

Moreover, Cook wasn’t alone in getting limited reps. Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen played only the opening snap before McDermott turned to backup QB Mitch Trubisky. So, McDermott’s message was consistent: team success and player safety outweigh individual milestones. Now, locked into the No. 6 seed in the AFC, Buffalo has a road playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (No. 3) next.