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Dalvin Cook next NFL team odds: Bills have potential need with Nyheim Hines season-ending injury, but Patriots, Dolphins, Jets remain favored landing spots

The Bills have lost running back Nyheim Hines to a season-ending injury.

Matt Severance

Every NFL team will have reported to training camp by this weekend but there remains one big-name free agent still available: former Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook. The Patriots (+150), Dolphins (+300) and Jets (+300) are the DraftKings favorites to be his next team, but Buffalo's odds (+1200) dropped a bit with the news that running back/return man Nyheim Hines will miss the season with an injury.

It remains to be seen whether Bills GM Brandon Beane still feels the need to add a running back with this news, as the team is still pretty deep there with Damien Harris (added in free agency this offseason from New England) Latavius Murray and second-year James Cook, Dalvin's younger brother. Hines will undergo season-ending knee surgery to address an injury suffered as the result of being struck by another rider while stationary on a jet ski.

The 26-year-old was acquired during last season in a rare running back-for-running back trade with Indianapolis. The Bills sent Zack Moss and what turned out to be a fifth-round pick to the Colts. Hines only carried the ball six times for minus-3 yards in nine games for the Bills and had five catches for 53 yards and a touchdown. Hines did punch in two kickoff returns for touchdowns against New England in January (Buffalo's first home game following the Damar Hamlin health scare) and was locked in as the primary punt and kick returner for 2023.  

"I think it will be easier in an offseason to get in the whole playbook, get the feel," Bills general manager Brandon Beane said of Hines' lack of touches at the end of last year. "You kind of install a lot more things than you do in season. So, yeah, I mean, in a perfect world, would have loved to get him more touches and hopefully that will happen next season."

Buffalo hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since LeSean McCoy in 2017. At one point, the Bills were favorites to sign Cook because they are Super Bowl contenders and his brother plays there, but Cook's reported priced tag ($10 million) and a domestic violence lawsuit perhaps gave the Bills second thoughts. Cook is from south Florida so some think the Dolphins have an edge. New England slid into the favored role only last week when it lost out on free agent receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who signed with Tennessee.

"I'm just taking my time and being patient with the process," Cook said over the weekend at his football camp. "It's a life decision that will put me in a [predicament] for my future. So I'm taking my time and I'm not rushing it and when I make that decision it's gonna be right for me and my family."

Buffalo visits the Jets on Monday night in Week 1. Cook isn't the only notable free agent RB to remain unsigned -- former Cowboys Pro Bowler Ezekiel Elliott is also without a job.

DraftKings favorites to sign Dalvin Cook

  • Patriots +150
  • Dolphins +200
  • Jets +300
  • Bills +1200
  • Commanders +1500
  • Raiders +1800

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