PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — James Cook had no second thoughts about reporting for training camp despite the lack of progress in the Buffalo Bills running back’s bid to land a lucrative contract extension.
One way or another, Cook is confident he’s going to get his big payday once his current deal expires after the season.
“I mean, however it happens, it’s going to get done, wherever it happens,” Cook said Thursday following the second day of Bills camp in the Rochester suburbs. “I deserve what I want, what I need, and it’s eventually going to happen.”
The fourth-year player is banking on himself to show the Bills and the rest of the NFL he’s worth the $15 million annual salary Cook first proposed in a social media post in February. Among NFL running backs, his asking price would match what Baltimore’s Derrick Henry is set to make this season and is behind only Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley ($20.6 million) and San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey ($19 million).
“It ain’t how I feel. I mean, the reality of it is that it’s just real,” Cook said, describing how he arrived at the figure after a breakout season in which he tied Henry for the league lead with 16 rushing touchdowns.
After skipping the Bills' voluntary spring sessions, Cook took part in three days of mandatory practices last month and has been working out regularly during the first two days of camp.
Aside from avoiding potential fines, Cook said another reason for his participation is to show his teammates and the Bills that he's committed to winning.
Though the lines of communication remain open, there’s little indication of the two sides approaching an agreement.
Speaking a day earlier, general manager Brandon Beane reiterated that he would like nothing more than to reach an agreement with Cook. At the same time, Beane stressed there’s only so much room under the salary cap after the Bills reached long-term deals in the offseason with several core players — including quarterback Josh Allen.
“Sometimes you can’t get on the same page or sometimes you’re trying to fit it in. There’s times guys have left here that we really wanted. We just couldn’t make it work,” Beane said. “But I can tell you, I’m hopeful when we’re sitting here at next year’s training camp that James Cook is out there practicing and still representing the red, white and blue.”
A 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia, Cook has been a starter since his second season. He has stabilized the Bills' running game while also catching 73 passes for for 703 yards and six TDs over the past two years.
“Just take it up a notch,” Cook said of his goals for this season. “Just whatever I could do to help the team win games and contribute, I’m willing to do it.”
He cited Allen and the fan base as reasons he wants to stay in Buffalo, before referring to the Bills as “a great organization.”
“They drafted me for a reason I feel like, and I'm willing to be here and spend the rest of my career here,” Cook said.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Buffalo Bills running back James Cook (4) catches a ball during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Buffalo Bills running back James Cook (4) runs with the ball during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Weathers was steamed when he found out he was joining the New York Yankees.
“I had had just finished up my bullpen and I get back to the house — I have like a little travel sauna,” he recalled Thursday. “I literally probably had sat on my couch for about two seconds and I got a phone call from Peter Bendix that I had been traded.”
Bendix, Miami's president of baseball operations, sent the 26-year-old left-hander to New York for four prospects on Tuesday: outfielders Brendan Jones and Dillon Lewis, and infielders Dylan Jasso and Juan Matheus.
Weathers is the son of David Weathers, a pitcher who helped the Yankees win the 1996 World Series after he was acquired from the Marlins at the trade deadline.
“We’ve kind of had a weird, similar paths as to how we got to New York,” Ryan Weathers said.
David was in the Dodger Stadium bullpen when he found out two minutes before the trade deadline he had been dealt to the Yankees. Manager Rene Lachemann called him on the bullpen phone and said Weathers needed to speak with general manager Dave Dombrowski.
“I went in the locker room and Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, John Burkett, Robb Nen, they said, `Hey man, good luck. You're going to win a World Series ring,' and they turned out to be prophetic,” David Weathers said.
David learned his son had been traded while watching a basketball game with wife Kelli at Loretto High School in Loretto, Tennessee, where he has coached baseball.
“One of my friends came up and said, `I think Ryan’s been traded to the Yankees.' And I said: `Well, if he has, I hadn’t heard anything about it,'" David recalled. "We laughed, and about that time my phone started ringing. It was Ryan.”
When Ryan makes his Yankees debut, they will become the fifth father-son duo for the pinstripes, joining Yogi and Dale Berra, Clay and Cody Bellinger, Mark Leiter and Mark Leiter Jr., and Ron Davis and Ike Davis.
Ryan was in shock when he spoke with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone.
“I just couldn’t believe that the New York Yankees were a team that I could ever have a chance to play for," he said.
New York’s rotation at the season's start projects to also include Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Luis Gil while Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón rehab from injuries.
Weathers, 26, was 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA in eight starts last year in his second straight injury-shortened season. He missed time with a strained left flexor, made his season debut on May 14, then didn’t pitch for Miami between June 7 and Sept. 11 because of a left lat strain.
He was 5-6 with a 3.63 ERA over 16 starts in 2024, when he was sidelined by a strained left index finger.
“This is the best I’ve probably felt in a year-and-a-half,” Weathers said. “I really did a dive and worked with company on figuring out how to lengthen my lat out, lengthen my back out. We really adjusted a lot of my lifting patterns. We really adjusted my mobility and my prep work, and I think my arm is reaping the benefits right now.”
Ryan grew up in big league clubhouses and remembered the Cincinnati Reds' room with Ken Griffey Jr. and Joey Votto. He played pickle with Dusty Baker, Ramón Hernández, Eric Milton and Juan Castro.
“There’s been a lot of hours put in the Cincinnati Reds' batting cages,” Weathers said. “I just remember Pops taking me to the field every day. I know when his arm was hurting, he’d still throw me BP.”
Ryan was the seventh overall pick by San Diego in the 2008 amateur draft and made his first big league appearance against the Dodgers in the 2020 NL Division Series — among only six players to make a major league debut in the postseason. His dad's knowledge helped him during tough times.
“When I first started going through it and getting adversity and getting traded, he really helped me along those lines of figuring out: This is what you do with your new team. This was what you do in your day-to-day,” Ryan said. “So I’ve been doing mechanics since I was age 10.”
He has remained close with pitcher Aaron Harang, a teammate of his father who last played in 2015.
“He still texts me all the time,” Weathers said. “When I was younger, I didn’t really care about pitching. I just wanted to hit bombs in the outfield, so I didn’t really think about it.”
For David, pitching in the World Series was less nerve-racking than being in the seats at Ryan's games.
“It’s way tougher being a dad and watching your son pitch than being a pitcher,” David said. “When he pitches, man, it is just like all day, it’s like I’m pitching. I’m thinking about what I would do, how I would attack these guys.”
Notes: New York finalized its $2 million, one-year contract with right-hander Paul Blackburn.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Miami Marlins starting pitcher Ryan Weathers throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sept. 24, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson, File)
