Gabe Davis caught an abysmal 51.6% of his 93 targets this year. Update: High% off target

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

11 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

I think in an ideal situation, Shakir emerges as the #2 next year. Davis goes back to his role as #3 and thrives. Bring in another speedster to compete with and possibly move on from McKenzie. 

 

Would be great to draft a great WR early but with also needing upgrades on the o-line I'm not sure I see that. It does feel like WR salaries have exploded so long-term it may be wise to draft a WR round 1 over an o-lineman. 

 

I have two requirements of any WR the Bills draft early. They need either have game breaking speed like a Waddle or Hill or they need to be minimum 6'3".

I prefer Shakir remain in the slot (#3) and find a solid 1b opposite Diggs.  Move Davis back to the #4 where he excelled.

[Charles Romes]

Beginning of the year, there were reports that Gabe was on the forefront of a novel “read-option” route scheme that Dorsey was working in. Gabe actually had experience with these rarely implemented concepts in college at UCF. I’m hoping that they give up on or tone down the option route scheme.  

[BADOLBILZ]

25 minutes ago, Success said:

He has the skills to be a great #2 on this team.  For a bit there in the playoffs, it looked like he was "back," and making some big plays.

 

The future looks a lot brighter if some of our players who underachieved this past year get back to form in the upcoming season.  There are young guys on both offense & defense who just fell short this year. 

 

 

 

He has not shown the skills to be a great #2 WR..........he is Alvin Harper 2.0.........and this isn't 1993 anymore.    Your WR2 really needs to be  route diverse option if you expect to be playing in a SB.    The quality of your WR2 may have more to do with advancing deep into the playoffs than having the better WR1 than your opponents.

 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

2 hours ago, ChasBB said:

Perhaps, but I just don't TRUST him any longer and I don't think any team would give much more than that for him after this season.

 

So then why trade a guy on a cheap contract who won't give you much in return?  Who are you going to replace him with that will still give you 48 catches and 836 yards for similar money?  Or even a little higher money. 

 

Replacing him still isn't going to solve the Bills problem as right now they need a 3rd WR.  Now you're getting rid of their #2.  Maybe he should be a #3, but either way, you've now opened up another roster spot and saved very little if any money in doing so.

[RyanC883]

2 hours ago, Augie said:

Like with Knox, I will go on the record and say I still believe. 

 

Gabe can learn from Knox on the hands/concentration front. Improve his routes a bit, and I have high hopes. 

didn’t Knox have good hands in college though.  Not sure if Davis did or not, but in any event it does appear that hands/concentration and route running should be something fixable. 

[Straight Hucklebuck]

He runs two routes. 

 

A go route and a comeback route off the go-route. 

 

Usually against the sideline. 

 

He's not a useable every down player. 

36 minutes ago, BUFFALOBART said:

He's 'great', when he is wide open. In traffic, -not so much.

 

Yeah, he needs 1-3 steps with the ball in front of him. 

 

He doesn't make contested catches. 

 

I heard a stat that was Gabe YAC was 2.9 this year. 

 

He makes the catch and falls down. 

 

The Pittsburgh game was the one exception where he did both. 

47 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

I prefer Shakir remain in the slot (#3) and find a solid 1b opposite Diggs.  Move Davis back to the #4 where he excelled.

Is this risk here that Shakir is an unknown starter, much like Gabe was coming into 2022? 

 

What happens if they get that projection wrong?

 

And I'm happy cutting McKenzie and not doing that confusion in the slot again. 

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

He went from Big Game Gabe to Big Drop Davis in one year. 

One amazing game hardly makes a career.  We all had such high hopes for Gabe to be our legit WR2 after hauling in those 4 tds. But unfortunately injuries and a return to untimely drops returned. This offense cannot move forward without a stud 2nd guy after Diggs.  Who that guy is I have no clue. 

[Straight Hucklebuck]

2 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

One amazing game hardly makes a career.  We all had such high hopes for Gabe to be our legit WR2 after hauling in those 4 tds. But unfortunately injuries and a return to untimely drops returned. This offense cannot move forward without a stud 2nd guy after Diggs.  Who that guy is I have no clue. 

1st Round WR. 

 

That's where you'll get a player with actual high caliber traits.

 

Bills offense is made up of mostly middle rounders. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

David is the least of the issues on offense. He is a very cheap#2 WR. They should draft a WR in round 1 or 2 for sure, but Davis isn't going anywhere.  Drops can be corrected. 

[london_bills]

3 hours ago, prissythecat said:

 

Gabe Davis was emotionally exhausted and out of gas like Saffold due to the Tops shooting and snowstorms.  Hence all the  drops.  Should be better next year

Ha. I see what you did here

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

He’s basically Robert Foster, just another guy, except Josh makes him look legit every now and then… Kinda like he did with Foster.

 

There is really nothing that Gabe excels at, which is unfortunate bc I really liked the dude and was hoping he’d be the answer opposite Diggs…

Edited February 6, 2023 by Dr.Mantis_Toboggan

[iccrewman112]

5 hours ago, Figster said:

 

Is there any type of graphic stats similar to a passing grid. I’d be intrigued to see his catch percentage on targets under 10 yards, 10-20 yards, and over 20 yards.

[ChasBB]

2 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

So then why trade a guy on a cheap contract who won't give you much in return?  Who are you going to replace him with that will still give you 48 catches and 836 yards for similar money?  Or even a little higher money. 

 

Replacing him still isn't going to solve the Bills problem as right now they need a 3rd WR.  Now you're getting rid of their #2.  Maybe he should be a #3, but either way, you've now opened up another roster spot and saved very little if any money in doing so.

The return doesn't really matter.  He's not helping this team now and that's all that matters.  If there is no return to be had, then release him.

[Figster]

27 minutes ago, iccrewman112 said:

Is there any type of graphic stats similar to a passing grid. I’d be intrigued to see his catch percentage on targets under 10 yards, 10-20 yards, and over 20 yards.

Its a good question. The answer may give us a better representation of what Davis's completion percentages might be If he was more involved in short yardage plays IMO.

[pennstate10]

2 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

He runs two routes. 

 

A go route and a comeback route off the go-route. 

 

Usually against the sideline. 

 

He's not a useable every down player. 

 

Yeah, he needs 1-3 steps with the ball in front of him. 

 

He doesn't make contested catches. 

 

I heard a stat that was Gabe YAC was 2.9 this year. 

 

He makes the catch and falls down. 

 

The Pittsburgh game was the one exception where he did both. 

Is this risk here that Shakir is an unknown starter, much like Gabe was coming into 2022? 

 

What happens if they get that projection wrong?

 

And I'm happy cutting McKenzie and not doing that confusion in the slot again. 

I don’t believe Gabe YAC was 2.9 yds. 
Do you have a reference for that stat?

[The Red King]

Someone's passing around a bottle of Copium in this thread.  Look, if you want to believe he'll get better, go for it.  But don't try and sugar-coat his performance this year.  Yes, he had amazing plays, but he's also had critical drops.  He's utterly inconsistant, and you can't have that in a WR2.

[GunnerBill]

6 hours ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

I prefer Shakir remain in the slot (#3) and find a solid 1b opposite Diggs.  Move Davis back to the #4 where he excelled.

 

Yea when people start using numbers I am always unsure about whether they mean target share or position or something else.

 

To me Shakir winning the starting slot job and taking a step forward would be a part of the improvement but agree he should stay in the slot (whatever number designation you give that). Ideally you bring another outside guy in early in the draft and let he and Davis split time at the 2nd outside slot opposite Diggs with the idea that when Davis walks as a FA after the season your then 2nd year player is ready to be the full time starter. The other element though in terms of targets is they need to get Knox much closer to #2 in terms of target share. He is our best weapon aside from Stef. And then they HAVE to find a way to get Cook more involved in the passing game to make that pick worthwhile. 

 

Last year Diggs was c.28% of our targets; Gabe c.18%; Knox and McKenzie c.12% each; The running backs total were also c.18% but Cook himself only c.6%. 

 

Knox and Cook need more targets, Shakir needs to step forward and they need to add another legit perimeter player.  That is the most plausible roadmap to improved production IMO. 

[John from Riverside]

Everybody thought that he was going to take the next step including me

 

He didn’t

 

Bring in competition that doesn’t include pulling guys out of retirement

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea when people start using numbers I am always unsure about whether they mean target share or position or something else.

 

To me Shakir winning the starting slot job and taking a step forward would be a part of the improvement but agree he should stay in the slot (whatever number designation you give that). Ideally you bring another outside guy in early in the draft and let he and Davis split time at the 2nd outside slot opposite Diggs with the idea that when Davis walks as a FA after the season your then 2nd year player is ready to be the full time starter. The other element though in terms of targets is they need to get Knox much closer to #2 in terms of target share. He is our best weapon aside from Stef. And then they HAVE to find a way to get Cook more involved in the passing game to make that pick worthwhile. 

 

Last year Diggs was c.28% of our targets; Gabe c.18%; Knox and McKenzie c.12% each; The running backs total were also c.18% but Cook himself only c.6%. 

 

Knox and Cook need more targets, Shakir needs to step forward and they need to add another legit perimeter player.  That is the most plausible roadmap to improved production IMO. 

I still think that, regardless of his blocking woes in his first year, shikur should’ve been the starting slot let him cut his teeth and make his mistakes and by the end of the year you’ve got some seasoning on him

[GunnerBill]

10 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

 

I still think that, regardless of his blocking woes in his first year, shikur should’ve been the starting slot let him cut his teeth and make his mistakes and by the end of the year you’ve got some seasoning on him

 

He was out there between a quarter and a third of the snaps. He was given a fair amount of opportunity. He just came along a little more slowly. 

[DapperCam]

8 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

Didn't Knox drop a gimmie TD in the WC game? He's been better but I don't think he is out of the woods yet. 

It was a hard catch because it was a bullet behind him and he had stop all of his momentum to try to go back for it.

 

Idk if I would call it a drop necessarily, but you’d like him to have it.