Bills HC Joe Brady on James Cook’s fumbles: ‘It’s gotta improve, or the carries are gonna decrease”

Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady conducted a weekly online press conference on Tuesday.

This appearance followed the team’s overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. Buffalo won despite star running back James Cook fumbling on the Bills’ first overtime possession.

Brady addressed the fumble, the offensive issues, and what it could mean for Cook going forward.

“He’s doing so many good things running the football, and I don’t wanna lose sight of how great he’s running the ball right now, but we’re putting the ball on the ground, and it’s negating all the positive. And I have all the confidence in him. That’s why I put him right back out there.

But at some point, there has to be consequences when we’re putting negative stuff out there. And so, it’s conversations that we’re having ongoing. James knows it’s important to him, but, yeah, that can’t happen. And it’s gonna cost us football games and almost cost us one.

But we can’t confuse because we won the game that that’s okay. And so, it’s gotta improve or the carries are gonna decrease.”

“He’s doing so many good things running the football, and I don’t wanna lose sight of how great he’s running the ball right now, but we’re putting the ball on the ground, and it’s negating all the positive. And I have all the confidence in him. That’s why I put him right back out there.

But at some point, there has to be consequences when we’re putting negative stuff out there. And so, it’s conversations that we’re having ongoing. James knows it’s important to him, but, yeah, that can’t happen. And it’s gonna cost us football games and almost cost us one.

But we can’t confuse because we won the game that that’s okay. And so, it’s gotta improve or the carries are gonna decrease.”

It was Cook’s second fumble of the game, but the only one that he lost. Buffalo’s RB has put the ball on the ground four times already this season in just five games, leading the league among non-quarterbacks. That’s the same number of fumbles he had between the entire 2023 and 2024 seasons.

After Cook’s overtime fumble, it looked like the Rams would win. Then, former kicker Hunter Mevis had his 48-yard field goal blocked. Bills quarterback Josh Allen took over and gained 32 yards on the ground, while Cook managed three yards on two carries.

Tyler Bass drilled a 45-yard field goal to end the game and give Buffalo the win.

It’ll be interesting to see if Brady backs up his threats. Cook currently has 532 yards and five touchdowns on 95 carries, along with four fumbles. Allen is the team’s second-leading rusher, but the Bills’ second-most involved running back is Ray Davis, with four carries through five weeks.

So if Cook’s carries decrease, will it be Davis, with eight rushing yards, or running back Ty Johnson, who has one three-yard carry this season, who gets more touches?

Cook isn’t the only one struggling to hold onto the ball. His overtime fumble on “Monday Night Football” was the 51st fumble of Week 5. Not the entire season, just Week 5.

NFL teams have fumbled 206 times already this season. That’s an average of 41.5 fumbles per week, even with two teams on bye last week.

Last year, the league had 536 fumbles in the regular season. The NFL has seen nearly half of last year’s total fumbles in less than a third of the season.

According to SportRadar data, this is the most fumbles through five weeks since 2022 and the highest per-game fumble average since 2019.

Last year’s 536 fumbles averaged out to 29.8 per week. The NFL saw 634 fumbles in 2024 (35.2 per week), 649 in 2023 (36.1 per week), 666 fumbles in 2022 (37 per game), and 653 in 2021 (36.3 per week) when the NFL schedule first expanded to 18 weeks.

While Brady is right to want to motivate his running back to hold onto the ball more, the truth is the NFL has a fumbling problem.

30 teams still need a bye week, but if the league maintains its current pace of 41.5 fumbles per week over the 18-week season, it will be about 747 fumbles this year, more than 200 more than a year ago.