Brandin Cooks let the pain from Buffalo's playoff loss linger for one week in January.
It's all the time he could afford to give before shifting his focus forward. The veteran receiver -- whose hands were last to touch the final football the Bills possessed in the 2025 season -- is preparing for his 13th NFL campaign, another go-around in what will be his 34th year of life.
It's a season he might need more than any other -- not for financial gain, but for healing.
"I will continue to process it until I get back on the field," Cooks told The Athletic of the fateful pass that was ripped from his possession in the AFC Divisional Round defeat to the Broncos, "but I think the biggest thing I can say is that I still feel like it was a catch. After it happened, seeing some of the so-called controversial calls that were called a catch, I just had to turn the playoffs off because I'm like, 'Yo, what is going on?'
"For me, the way that my mind operates is, 'OK, what can I do about it?' And what I can do about it is get back on the field, continue to work on being the best that I can be and making sure next time it's a catch-and-run for a touchdown and leave it in no one else's hands."
With 734 career receptions, 9,811 receiving yards, 60 receiving touchdowns and plenty of experience playing for Super Bowl contenders, Cooks remains a valued commodity on the open market. Training camp is just weeks away, meaning decision time is near. He'll have his options, but if storytelling wins out, Cooks will return to Buffalo with redemption on his mind.
"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."
At 33, Cooks is well aware he's running out of opportunities to win a Lombardi Trophy. He's come painfully close in the past, exiting what was ultimately a high-flying, explosive Super Bowl LII due to a concussion suffered in the second quarter while playing for the New England Patriots. A year later, he returned to the grand stage as a member of the Los Angeles Rams and lost -- to the Patriots.
His latest brush with the football gods placed him at the center of heartbreak when Josh Allen's soaring pass landed in Cooks' hands, where he appeared to haul in the reception that would have set up the Bills for a game-winning field goal in overtime. By the time Cooks finished rolling over, the ball was in Ja'Quan McMillian's arms, an interception that ended Buffalo's overtime drive and granted the Broncos a chance to advance.
Denver did. Another season in Buffalo ended without a ring.
Cooks isn't shy about his desire to return to the Bills, though, because he saw a situation in which he knew he was needed when he joined them late in the 2025 season. That sentiment was obvious when Allen chose Cooks as his target on the fateful play that led to the end of Buffalo's season.
"I chose Buffalo because of the belief in Josh Allen," Cooks said. "From afar, you heard the things going on inside the receiver room. In my mind, 'OK, this was an opportunity where you got guys that can play, but also there's a niche in there where, if I can come in and do what I have to do, I'm contributing.' It was the totality of things, but who wouldn't want to play with Josh Allen?"
Since then, the Bills have added veteran DJ Moore and spent a fourth-round pick on Skyler Bell, resupplying the room with two new options while leaving room to at least entertain reuniting with Cooks.
Veterans report to camps by July 28, leaving Cooks with less than three weeks to determine where he might play in 2026. Cooks has attracted interest from a handful of enticing teams, his agent told The Athletic.
We'll see if Cooks decides to don yet another new uniform -- his seventh of his NFL career -- or if the lure of unfinished business wins out.
