Gabriel Davis Is Ready To Be The Bills WR2
“With the 22nd pick in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills Select, Gabriel Davis Wide Receiver UCF.”
This is where Davis’s story begins, when drafted by the Bills, Davis appeared to be a depth addition to the now deep Bills wide receiver core. As the shortened offseason progressed, a ton of buzz began to stir around the talented wide receiver.
As the regular season went on, Davis began to show flashes of greatness, he also started to catch the eye of the fantasy community. Part way into the season, Davis was not rostered by most of the fantasy community. His fourth round draft capital and situation was not overly appealing to the masses. However, he has turned out to be a “Twitter darling” in the last half of the season. Is the hype deserved? Can he sustain his production moving forward? Let’s take a look together and figure it out!
College Production
Davis played three years at UCF, over this time he played 34 games and totaled 152 receptions, 2,447 yards, and 23 touchdowns. In 2019 he finished top five in the American Athletic Conference in the following statistical categories: receiving yards(2nd), touchdowns(2nd), receptions(4th), average per reception(5th). This drew the attention of many NFL scouts, but the 2020 draft class was extremely deep at his position. This depth caused him to fall to the Bills in the fourth round, which turned out to be a great fit!
Joining the Herd!
Upon arrival to Buffalo, Davis had one thing all the other Bills receivers did not. This was size! His 6-2″ frame set him apart from Diggs (6-0″), Brown (5-11″), and Beasley (5-8″). Early on in the season, he was used sparingly and mostly in Red-zone packages. It was clear that Josh Allen had taken a step forward as a passer, as he was spreading the ball all over the field. This benefited Davis immensely as he was able to carve out a role in the offense.
Davis went on to produce respectable numbers for a rookie receiver, finishing with 35 receptions, 599 yards, and 7 touchdowns. His seven touchdowns was tied for second amongst rookie receivers, which is very impressive from this deep class. What was as equally impressive were his Next-Gen stats, which hold a simalrity to second round pick Micheal Pittman’s. Pittman was highly sought after in both the NFL draft and fantasy draft. There was one main difference between the two, their Targeted Air Yards, Davis posted a 15.9 targeted air yard stat compared to Pittman’s 8.5 yards. He accounted for 19 percent of the Bills targeted air yards total. Davis has establish himself as a mid to deep range target for the Bills offense.
The Bills offense was as high octane as they come in 2020. The once run dominant offense has converted to a pass heavy offense, led by their young gunslinger Josh Allen. They ran 11 personnel (3 wide receivers) 74 percent of the time, which ranked second in the NFL behind only Cincinnati. Along with that they also ranked second only behind Arizona in 10 personnel (4 wide receivers ). These package percentages are a good sign for Davis moving forward, the Bills need to have at least three reliable receivers.
The Future
Gabriel Davis averaged 12.2 PPR points over the last 6 weeks of the season while filling in for the team’s injured WR2, John Brown. Those are not overly eye popping numbers in the fantasy community, however the impressive part is he did this while averaging 2.6 catches per game. His per reception numbers are amongst the best in the league, averaging 21.4 yards. This past week in the wild card round Allen found Davis 4 times for 85 yards, keeping up his crazy yards per reception statistic. At a crucial point in the game Allen found Davis for two huge toe tapping receptions, which turned the tide for the offense.
Allen has began to trust Davis while using him in key situations. Moving forward, Gabriel Davis is on track to be the WR2 in the Bills offense. Davis is still relatively cheap and is a huge buy low target this offseason. John Brown is a free agent in 2022 and the Bills will move on from him. Davis may even move up the depth cart in 2021 if he continues to perform at this high of a level. The future is very bright for Davis as he will be tied to Allen and this offense for years to come.
