The Buffalo Bills are not hiding the fact that they’re in a tough spot with standout running back James Cook.

They love the player. But they don’t love him $15 million APY worth.

So Cook, with one year left on his deal and an extension at that level not happening – the Bills have essentially walked away from the negotiating table as they view that ask to be excessive – finds himself in the middle of the rumor mill.

Enter a website called “Pro Football Network,” which in naming a player from each team that it figures to be traded, marks Cook of the Bills as a guy who can end up with Dallas as a potential landing spot.

“Dallas has a connection to Cook with Ken Dorsey, a Cowboys assistant who was Cook’s offensive coordinator in Buffalo from 2022 until he was fired after Week 10 of the 2023 season,” Pro Football Network writes.

On the surface? And third: We mean no disrespect to Ken Dorsey, but we doubt he has that level of pull in Dallas.

And goind deeper? We go to long-time Cowboys insider Mike Fisher for some nuts and bolts here.

“I don’t know where this one comes from,” Fish says, “But this one isn’t happening. At all. The Cowboys want to fix their running game. For the moment, they’d like to do it with just-signed vets Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders.

“And in this NFL Draft, in Rounds 2 or 3? They’d like to find a starter. They’re paying guys $1 million per year here – not $15 million.

Dallas taking a running back early in the draft would give that offense some much-needed juice behind Dak Prescott – and Cook would obviously do that, too.

But this is one of those on-paper ideas that is never going to make it on to the actual field.