Bills GM Beane has no timeline on contract standoff with Cook after RB skips 2nd day of practice

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane told The Associated Press on Monday he isn’t sure how long the contract standoff with James Cook will last after the running back declined to participate in practice for a second straight day.

Cook wore a white hat, red Bills pullover and blue shorts upon briefly entering the practice field, before ducking into a portable bathroom about 12 minutes before practice was scheduled to start. He then left the field, exiting through the trainer’s tent and did not re-appear during the two-hour session.

This marks the second day Cook has not participated in practice in the fourth-year player’s next step in escalating his bid to extend the final year of his contract. On Sunday, Cook worked out on a stationary bike before watching practice from the sideline while wearing a white sweatsuit.

A second-round pick in the 2022 draft, Cook was the NFL’s co-leader with 16 touchdowns rushing in his second full season as a starter.

Cook risks being fined by the team for declining to practice. The Bills are off Tuesday before closing camp in suburban Rochester with practices Wednesday and Thursday, followed by opening their preseason schedule by hosting the New York Giants on Saturday.

On Sunday, Cook repeatedly used the word “business” when asked about his decision to not practice, in speaking to a small group of reporters.

Cook’s agent has not returned messages seeking comment.

Earlier Monday, Beane appeared on WGR-Radio and said the team wasn’t aware of Cook’s decision to not practice Sunday until shortly before the session began. Beane also reiterated the two sides have been in constant contact in a bid to bridge the gap.

"I’d love to see Jimbo out there today. I don’t know that answer at this point this morning, whether that will happen or not,” Beane said.

“But hopefully we’ll get him back out there soon,” he added. “This is my ninth season here, and we’ve never had a player miss due to a contract or anything like that, so that’s disappointing for me. It’s not something we want.”

The 25-year-old Cook made no secret this offseason of his desire for a new contract that would pay him in the range of $15 million a year in what would make him among the league’s highest-paid players at his position.

Though Cook skipped all of the team’s voluntary sessions this spring, he had previously taken part in each of the Bills mandatory practices, including their first eight of training camp before Sunday.

Cook’s absence from practice comes at a time the Bills are already short on bodies because of injuries. As many as 15 players missed or were limited in practice on Sunday because of injuries, including receivers Khalil Shakir (ankle), Joshua Palmer (groin) and Curtis Samuel (hamstring).

The Bills have depth at running back with returning backups Ray Davis and Ty Johnson as well as Frank Gore Jr., who spent his rookie season last year on the practice squad.

Johnson has had several conversations with Cook and backs his teammate.

“I respect him for those decisions and everything, and I hope he gets the best results he wants,” Johnson said, following practice. “He's trying to do what's best for him. At the end of the day, we're not in this league for a long time, so he's trying to get his.”

Davis is focused on what he can control, which now includes getting additional practice time with the starters.

“I'd love to have him out here again,” Davis said. “James is one of a kind. There’s a very few amount of guys who’s breaking 75-yard runs in the NFL, and he’s one of those guys. So to see how special he is when he has a ball in his hands, he does a lot for this organization, he does a lot for this running back room.”

Meantime, the Bills signed interior offensive lineman Dan Feeney to add depth at center with backups Alec Anderson and Sedrick Van Pran-Granger sidelined. Feeney has experience playing center during his eight NFL seasons, including having 16 starts at the position in 2020, his fourth and final season with the Chargers.

The Bills released offensive lineman Rush Reimer and defensive lineman Kameron Cline.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Buffalo Bills running back James Cook (4) walks on the field during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

SEMMERING, Austria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin was fourth and more than half a second off the pace in the opening run of a women’s World Cup slalom Sunday, putting the American’s five-race winning streak in the discipline in danger.

Shiffrin posted the fastest second split time and was one-hundredth ahead of world champion Camille Rast halfway down the Panorama course but lost considerable time on the Swiss racer in the bottom section and finished 0.54 seconds behind.

Rast led Italian-born prodigy Lara Colturi, who competes for Albania and was 0.09 seconds back in second, and Austria's Katharina Liensberger, who trailed by 0.34.

“It’s a pretty tough one. I think, probably, a little bit like overskiing, too round, compared to what’s possible," Shiffrin told Austrian TV, adding she planned to analyze video footage of her own and Rast’s run before the final leg later Sunday.

"Imagine like Camille, she is so direct on the gates, if she manages that, what must be, then it's so quick, so fast, so down the hill,” the American said.

Shiffrin won the final race of last season and then dominated the first four slaloms of the current Olympic campaign, winning them by an average margin of 1.5 seconds.

Shiffrin, who was the 2014 Olympic champion and holds the women’s World Cup record of 68 slalom wins, has won the slalom in Semmering three times, most recently in 2022 after she had won back-to-back giant slaloms in two days in the resort near Austrian capital Vienna.

Shiffrin led second-placed Colturi by 180 points in the slalom standings coming into Sunday’s race. The World Cup schedule includes three more slaloms in January before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and then two in March.

Zrinka Ljutic, who won the slalom globe last season, was 10th after the opening run and the Croatian racer had to make up 2.13 seconds in the final run.

Shiffrin's teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.41 off the lead, a day after she crashed and fell on her back and head in a giant slalom on the same hill. That race was won by Austria's Julia Scheib, who does not compete in slalom.

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Albania's Lara Colturi speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

Switzerland's Camille Rast speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Semmering, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)