What Does Gabe Davis Bring to the Jaguars' Offense?
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ front office played the game and paid for it, losing star receiver Calvin Ridley to their in-division rival Tennessee Titans on a $92 million deal last week. Luckily for Jacksonville, the team managed to find themselves a receiver early on in free agency to help lessen the pain and cries of Jaguars’ fans.
That receiver is former Buffalo Bills wideout Gabe Davis. Davis has had a successful start to his career. The former UCF Golden Knight has caught 163 balls for 2,730 yards and 27 touchdowns thus far into his career. While he’s not the potential No.1 receiver that Ridley has shown to be, Davis excels at his craft, becoming one of the league's best deep-ball receivers.
Davis was never the Bills’ primary receiver as Stefon Diggs has held that role since the team traded for him back in 2020. In fact, Davis has never surpassed 50 receptions or 900 yards in a season. So what’s with all of the hype?
Davis is a playmaker of the highest form. Of Davis’ 163 receptions, 46 have gone for at least 20 yards, averaging an absurd 16.7 yards per reception. Since being drafted, Davis has accounted for 95 explosive plays (15+ yards). His career explosive play rate of 45.4% ranks first among NFL receivers, in addition to his 78.9% first down rate from 2020-2023.
He brings an explosive element to the Jaguars’ offense they desperately need, especially with the loss of Ridley. Davis spoke on what he brings to the team in his introductory press conference.
“I feel like I can do it all. I did so much when I was at Buffalo, whether if it was catching deep balls or lead blocking through the C gap, I’m very versatile and I can play any time of game they need me to play, whichever week, any other week.” said Davis.
He continued, “I feel like that’s what I bring, I was a 24-year-old captain at Buffalo, I feel like I got good leadership skills and I voted back-to-back hardest worker there as well. That’s what I try to prove to my teammates; that they can trust me because they see the sacrifice that I put in for my team and they see that I love this game and I don’t take it for granted because it’s brought me so much. I try to show the guys that when times are tough, they can depend on me.”
Davis also has a knack for finding the endzone, something the Jaguars struggled with last season after the injury to Zay Jones. In Davis’ career, 16.6% of his receptions have been touchdowns. His bigger frame certainly plays a part as Davis stands 6-foot-2, 225 pounds.
It seems Davis is ecstatic to be back in Florida and to be a Jaguar, “As soon as I heard Jacksonville, I was like, ‘Thank God, they called. Thank God.’ I wanted to come back to Florida, I wanted to be around guys that I knew, a coast that I loved and the team is great. Shoot, we could never beat them. Came here and as soon as they sent it in, negotiating was in and then boom, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m a Jaguar man.’ A pretty easy decision.”
The Jaguars’ receiving corps now consists primarily of Christian Kirk, Gabe Davis, Zay Jones, and Parker Washington. While Kirk’s a fantastic slot, the Jaguars will likely ask Davis to do more than what he was asked to do in Buffalo.
Currently, this isn’t a very strong group but with an additional piece or two, it could have potential in 2024. This year’s draft class is STRONG at receiver and Jacksonville could nab a guy in the first couple of days and get an instant starter. Having a deep threat and redzone target like Davis, however, will certainly help Jacksonville become a far more dangerous offense going forward.
