Best James Cook Prop Bet for Bills vs. Vikings on Monday 11/9/26

At this point, the Buffalo Bills are in a fairly comfortable position to wrest control of the AFC East back from the New England Patriots, as they currently lead the division by two games. At this point, Buffalo can train one eye on the playoffs, where its lack of success in the Josh Allen era has been a glaring hole.

Tonight, the Bills, who are currently projected to finish as the AFC’s No. 1 seed, will play in prime time against the NFC’s current No. 2 seed, the Minnesota Vikings, on Monday Night Football at 8:15 p.m. ET.

Buffalo is a 3.5-point road favorite for tonight’s matchup at DraftKings Sportsbook (-192 on the Moneyline), with the point total set to 45.5. Minnesota is +160 on the Moneyline.

Below, I’ve detailed my favorite prop bet centered around Bills running back James Cook.

Best James Cook Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook

James Cook 100+ Rushing + Receiving Yards (-124)

I’m playing this one pretty conservatively out of respect for the Vikings’ vaunted defense, but 100 all-purpose yards should be pretty safe for Cook, who finished fourth with 1,912 rushing + receiving yards last season. Cook has combined consistency with output, clearing the 100-yard threshold from scrimmage in five of his seven games. Pro Football Focus isn’t much of a fan of him, as he ranks 35th among 62 qualified running backs by rushing grades and 49th by receiving grades, but he’s gained 0.78 more yards per attempt than expected, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, and though he doesn’t qualify, he’d rank 10th in yards after the catch per reception if he did.

Volume should continue to help Cook. This season, Buffalo ranks second in rushing attempts and just 26th in passing attempts, in part because of Cook and in part because Allen is one of the better rushing quarterbacks in NFL history, and Cook ranks third league-wide in attempts per game. He’s been efficient with those looks, ranking sixth in yards per attempt. The Bills’ likelihood of victory is also heavily correlated with their reliance on the run game; they haven’t lost a game in which they ran the ball at least as many times as they passed it since Week 18 of the 2024 season, going 15-0 between the regular season and the playoffs in such situations since then. In fact, it’s been nearly three years since Buffalo lost a game in which it leaned heavily on the run with Allen under center, so the Bills have no reason not to keep pounding the rock.

The Vikings have done a good job stopping opposing running backs, but their front seven hasn’t been quite as dominant as their secondary. All in all, Minnesota has allowed the 16th-most yards and 10th-most yards per carry to opposing ball-carriers, allowing more than 100 yards per game to running backs alone. Plus, with safety Theo Jackson, who has posted the second-highest run defense grades on the team and the eighth-highest among 100 qualified safeties overall, out for tonight’s game with a quad injury, Cook should have less trouble breaking away from defenders.