WR Brandin Cooks Wants To Rejoin Bills

The nomadic Cooks finished 2025 with the Bills, his sixth NFL team, and they have seemingly left the door open for a new contract. A few weeks before April’s draft, general manager Brandon Beane said the Bills and Cooks had engaged in talks. Beane went on to draft receiver Skyler Bell in the fourth round, adding to a group that also includes D.J. Moore, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Josh Palmer, Mecole Hardman, Trent Sherfield and the injured Tyrell Shavers, among others.

Despite the offseason acquisitions of Bell and Moore, it appears Buffalo still has interest in Cooks. It is unclear whether the Bills have made an offer, but the 32-year-old revealed to Graham that he recently talked to head coach Joe Brady. Cooks also made it clear to Graham that he would prefer to re-sign with the Bills.

“Obviously, Buffalo is the place I’d love to be,” Cooks said. “I want to prove that to them and have a full offseason with them. Both sides are figuring things out. We’ll see, but hopefully something transpires because I love going to training camp. That’s where you build that callus.”

Then desperate for receiving help, the Bills signed the field-stretching Cooks after the Saints cut him at his request last November. New Orleans restructured Cooks’ contract to increase the chances he would go through waivers unclaimed. After that happened, Cooks weighed five offers in free agency, he told Graham. One of them came from the Seahawks, who went on to win Super Bowl LX in February. Meanwhile, the Bills were unable to get past the second round of the playoffs.

When he chose Buffalo over Seattle, Cooks turned down a chance to play with close friend Cooper Kupp and reunite with a pair of Saints connections in Rashid Shaheed and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. However, he explained to Graham that he had a better chance to see the field with the Bills. He also wanted to play with quarterback Josh Allen.

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Cooks got into five of the Bills’ last six regular-season games (they rested him and a slew of others in Week 18) and caught just five of 11 targets for 114 yards. But he and Allen began developing a stronger connection at the very end of the year. Cooks closed his regular season with a four-catch, 101-yard showing against the Eagles in Week 17. He added another three receptions for 58 yards in a 27-23 wild-card round victory in Jacksonville. In his greatest contribution of the day, Cooks pulled in a a pivotal 36-yard grab that set up the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

The Bills’ season ended a week later in Denver, where they lost 33-30 in overtime. The Broncos held Cooks to two catches and 20 yards, and he missed an opportunity to emerge as a hero in OT. Cooks was unable to secure a 43-yard catch that would have moved the Bills deep into Broncos territory. Cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian wrestled away possession and came away with an interception (a ruling Cooks still disagrees with, as detailed in Graham’s piece). The Broncos then drove for the winning field goal. Two days later, the Bills fired longtime head coach Sean McDermott.

The Brady-led Bills and the rest of the league are a couple of weeks away from the start of training camp. Cooks, who told Graham that camp is “the purest form of football,” hopes to sign somewhere by then. After going without a touchdown for the first time in his career and totaling just 24 catches and 279 yards in 2025, it appears Cooks will have to settle for a relatively inexpensive contract.