The Buffalo Bills entered the 2021 season with three established, veteran wide receivers. When it came down to crunch time, a second-year player was always ready to step up, and that’s why Gabriel Davis comes in at number four on our list of best Bills values.
In order to afford big contracts for their talented players, the Bills must also find some diamonds in the rough. Cheap veterans and rookies on their entry contracts have to play a major role on the Buffalo Bills and general manager Brandon Beane has found several.
In the past when we’ve done our listing, we used cap hit to reflect value, but with the cap shenanigans employed by Brandon Beane recently and the improvement of the databases, we’ve switched to yearly cash payments as our metric.
Davis was tied for 50th on the Bills in 2021, making $780,000 in cash alongside Reggie Gilliam, Tyler Bass, and Tyrel Dodson. That ranked him sixth among wide receivers on the Bills in terms of cash and 161st in the NFL at his position.
Despite the low cash position, he played in 16 games for the Bills, starting four, tallying 35 receptions (sixth on the team), 549 yards (fifth), and six touchdowns (third). In the postseason, he added two catches for 41 yards and a touchdown against the New England Patriots in the Wild Card Round before going bananas in the Divisional Round. In that game, he tied an NFL record with four receiving touchdowns on the back of 201 yards on just eight catches—and faked a Kansas City Chiefs defender completely off his feet on a fourth-down touchdown late in the game. The clutch gene was in full effect.
In all, he played just under 48% of the offensive snaps as the clear fourth WR, but his playing time crept up as the season wore on. In the final four games of the season, he played more than 80% of the offensive snaps in each contest.
Entering his third season, he’s still at least a year away from signing a bigger paycheck. He’s set to move into the No. 2 receiver role and make less than $900,000. I’d say it’s a safe bet we see him back on the list in 2022.
Buffalo Bills 2021 Best Values
- Stay tuned
- Stay tuned
- Stay tuned
- WR Gabe Davis
- CB Levi Wallace
- DT Ed Oliver
- DT Harrison Phillips
- S Jordan Poyer
- OT Spencer Brown
- RB Devin Singletary
Loading comments...