Bills Reunite with 26-Year-Old Receiver After One Season Apart
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane are going into their ninth season together. As the years go on, many players have left the team, but many have come back, too. One such player is Gabe Davis, who the team was reported to be signing on Tuesday. Davis is returning to Buffalo after leaving in free agency last year. After being speculated to return, he’s confirmed to be coming back home to Orchard Park.
The Bills drafted Davis in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Davis was the highest-drafted wide receiver since the team took Zay Jones with the 37th-overall pick in 2017. After a season of making the playoffs with John Brown and Cole Beasley as the top two targets at wideout, Beane wanted to upgrade his personnel as well as build around Josh Allen. In his rookie season, Davis split time with the other well-established receivers and played behind First-Team All-Pro Stefon Diggs. After Davis’ second season, many people started to take notice of him. He played in a lesser role than even his rookie season with the addition of Emmanuel Sanders, but he cemented himself as a Bills playoff legend. Davis caught a playoff-record four touchdowns in the AFC Championship against the Chiefs, solidifying himself as one of Allen’s favorite targets and giving the Bills’ coaching staff faith in him.
Going into 2022, the Bills trusted Davis to be the number-two receiver in Buffalo, which turned out to be the wrong move. Davis went from having one catch for 13 yards in Week Three of 2022 to three catches for 171 yards and two touchdowns in Week Four. That stretch encapsulates his career as he averaged 46.5 receptions for 791 yards and seven receiving touchdowns as the number two option in Buffalo, underperforming the lofty expectations set by his stellar playoff game. The Bills decided not to re-sign Davis in 2024, leading to him signing with the Jaguars on a three-year, $39 million contract. The six-foot-two, 225-pound receiver will not remember his time in Jacksonville fondly. Davis caught 20 passes for 239 yards before tearing the meniscus in his left knee and missing the remainder of the year. It’s been reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Davis is returning to the Bills as a member of the practice squad as he continues his recovery from the injury.
