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Brandin Cooks relived the fateful play on a loop.
He obsessed over every frame.
Slow it down.
Freeze it.
Rewind.
Play.
Slo-mo, pause.
There! Look at that! Advance a few more frames, squint, study closer, rewind and play again.
Even when Cooks closed his eyes, he kept seeing it.
He relived the sequence through his own eyes, how the football left Josh Allens hand and soared through the night air, how it felt in his hands, how the defender engulfed him, how Empower Field at Mile High fell into silent suspense and then erupted.
Advertisement For a week straight, I was watching it over and over, Cooks told The Athletic.
But I knew, as a father, that I had to put it away.
If Id have kept watching, it would have put me in some type of mood that my wife and my kids didnt deserve.
The last time we heard from Cooks, he didnt have enough time to process one of the most consequential plays in Buffalo Bills history.
He wasnt sure what just happened, hadnt seen a replay yet.
Tears ran down his cheeks.
And he had no clue that within 36 hours Bills owner Terry Pegula would directly reference the cataclysmic moment multiple times while trying to explain why he fired head coach Sean McDermott.
The Denver Broncos eliminated the Bills in overtime of last seasons AFC divisional round, a game effectively decided when the NFL ruled that defensive back JaQuan McMillian stripped the ball from Cooks for an interception as they tumbled to the frigid ground.
What a play in OT by Ja'Quan McMillian BUFvsDEN on CBS/Paramount+ Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/noqikIoPQC NFL (@NFL) January 18, 2026 The plane ride home, Cooks said, there was so much silence.
Before the plane took off for Buffalo, however, there was so much noise.
McDermott saw the replays and boiled.
He was already irate over how referee Carl Cheffers and the NFL handled the controversial moment.
If back judge Scott Helverson ruled it a catch, then the Bills were in safe field-goal range to win the game even if they didnt gain another yard.
Helverson called it a turnover, and the critical decision was upheld seemingly without deliberation.
The NFL has paused less meaningful games for trivial officiating reasons, but 76 seconds after Helverson decided McMillian stole possession from Cooks, the Broncos were breaking their offensive huddle and trotting to the line of scrimmage.
McDermott, bewildered by the hurried switchover, called a timeout.
The Bills got no satisfaction from Cheffers explanation.
McDermott said he watched the replay 20 times immediately after the game and fumed at his postgame news conference about Buffalo getting shafted yet again.
Advertisement On the Bills charter plane, McDermott, a member of the NFLs competition committee, remained so irate he phoned the Empower Field at Mile High press box to restate his case that Cooks made a catch all the way and to rip the league for how it handled the process.
Several rows back, after the plane fell silent again, Cooks made his way to Allens seat.
The biggest thing I could do was just thank him for believing in me, said Cooks, and bringing me in toward the end of the season and eventually be a vital piece that he trusted.
At least on the topic of whether Cooks caught the ball, Pegula and McDermott saw things the same way.
The Bills should have had first-and-10 on the Broncos 20-yard line, the same side of the field where Matt Prater already had made a 50-yard field goal with 5 seconds left to force overtime.
Pegula was adamant that the NFL blew it, yet the call was instrumental in the owners decision to fire McDermott anyway.
Cooks said he was shocked by the announcement, adding to a whirlwind that also included officials upholding Los Angeles Rams receiver Davante Adams reception on an eerily similar play with Chicago Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson.
I will continue to process it until I get back on the field, Cooks said, 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 Im 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 its a catch-and-run for a touchdown and leave it in no one elses hands.
The anguish doesnt keep Cooks up at night anymore.
It gets him out of bed in the morning.
Cooks turns 33 in September and craves that unfound glory.
He wants to return to the Bills, and the interest apparently is mutual.
Bills football boss Brandon Beane said in March the team had stayed in contact with Cooks camp, and Cooks said he talked with new head coach Joe Brady recently.
Advertisement Any contract will likely be team friendly.
Cooks doesnt need the money.
He has earned $124.9 million over his career, less than just nine receivers all time.
He flies his own Cirrus Vision Jet, although hes in the market for a new one.
The Oregon home where he lives with his college-sweetheart wife, Briannon, and their three children was featured in Architectural Digest two years ago.
But you cant buy a Super Bowl ring.
I know what teams dont know right now, Cooks agent, Ryan Tollner, said.
Hes working in the dark right now as hard as anyone you could imagine.
Hes a master of controlling what he can control.
Even the way the season ended, he was crushed because he wants to win, but I would guess that Brandin would rather have the opportunity to make a play and have the ball come to him.
Thats what he works so relentlessly for.
Tollner said plenty of contenders have extended offers, that an exciting choice will be made, but Cooks has emphasized his wish for one team in particular.
Cooks is done rewinding that replay, but he wants to run it back with Buffalo.
Training camp, Cooks said, is the purest form of football, so he intends to be on a roster within the next few weeks.
Obviously, Buffalo is the place Id 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.
Well see, but hopefully something transpires because I love going to training camp.
Thats where you build that callus.
Cooks knows hes exactly 189 yards from 10,000 and that exactly 52 receivers have reached the mark before him, but he could sign anywhere and collect personal stats.
He laughs at the fact hes never been selected for a Pro Bowl despite being the only player to post three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons with different teams.
The Lombardi Trophy is what drives him.
Advertisement I do think about it all the time, especially when Im up in the morning, working out, Cooks said.
When youre on that last set, and no ones watching, and no one cares how you feel, Ill get those flashbacks for sure.
The cruel, so-close moment was the latest in a long procession throughout Cooks career.
The next uniform for lesser men might be a straitjacket.
Despite voluminous production, his partnerships with elite quarterbacks on Super Bowl-winning franchises have occurred at the wrong time.
The New Orleans Saints featured Drew Brees and were five years removed from a Lombardi Trophy when they made Cooks their 2014 first-round draft choice then failed to reach the playoffs each of Cooks three years there.
He became part of a trivia question, tying Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson as the most-traded player in NFL history.
In 2017, the defending champion New England Patriots acquired him to be Tom Bradys top wideout and lost in the Super Bowl.
Two months later, the Rams acquired Cooks and went to the Super Bowl, where he had eight catches for 120 yards and lost to the Patriots.
Hoo, you think about it all the time, specifically in the offseason, on those grind days when nobodys looking, Cooks said.
That definitely gives you the urge to wake up a little bit quicker.
You want to do everything in your power and might so that if you get an opportunity again theres no question you did everything to not fall short.
It doesnt keep me up or give me unhealthy flashbacks.
But from a competitive nature, I still think about not winning the Super Bowl as if it happened yesterday.
After two seasons with the Rams, Cooks was traded to Houston, where he helped Deshaun Watson lead the NFL in passing.
Meanwhile, the Rams won the Super Bowl.
In 2023, the Dallas Cowboys made the fourth Cooks trade in six years.
Dak Prescott led the NFL in touchdown passes, but Dallas got upset in the first round.
Advertisement Cooks signed his first free-agent contract last year, at 31, re-joining New Orleans, expecting Derek Carr to be the quarterback and contend in a weak NFC South (no club posted a winning record).
But Carr decided to retire, leaving New Orleans with Spencer Rattler and rookie Tyler Shough.
The Saints traded receiver Rashid Shaheed at the deadline, and Cooks requested his release to play for a contender.
As a sign of respect, the Saints renegotiated his contract with a poison pill to make the deal unattractive and zip him through waivers.
Nobody claimed him.
Cooks said he had five offers to consider.
He was willing to take the league minimum salary.
Asked what the other teams were, he laughed.
He would share one for the sheer comedic value.
He passed on the Seattle Seahawks, eventual Lombardi Trophy winners.
One of my best friends, (former Rams teammate) Cooper Kupp, is there, Cooks said.
Obviously, Shaheed went over there, and hes like a little brother to me, got a lot of respect for Klint Kubiak, and its close to home.
But it was one of those things where, Oh, those guys are loaded over there.
How many opportunities would I really have, coming over in the middle of the season? With Buffalo, I felt I would have more opportunities to be on the field.
Now, here we are, and Seattle has the trophy.
He insisted he has no regrets about his choice.
Buffalo needed him, as evidenced by Allen putting the final throw into Cooks hands.
When the Bills signed Cooks in Week 13, short-range slot receiver Khalil Shakir was their leading target with 55 catches, tied for 29th league-wide.
Tight end Dalton Kincaid led the team with 571 receiving yards, 41st league-wide.
Veteran receiver Josh Palmer was either injured or unproductive.
Keon Coleman, Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore were all healthy scratches at some point.
Advertisement 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 theres a niche in there where, if I can come in and do what I have to do, Im contributing.
It was the totality of things, but who wouldnt want to play with Josh Allen? Buffalo traded for D.J.
Moore this offseason and drafted Skyler Bell in the fourth round, but hasnt done much else to shore up its receiver group from last year.
Theres space for another wise, driven veteran at the right price.
If not, then Cooks probably wont dwell on it.
The game is the game, Cooks said.
If something fell into my hands one other little way, then it can be a different story, but thats the beauty of being the man in the arena, right? You get to feel those emotions, and it gets you back to work.