The Ray Davis-backup running back discussion

[buffaloaggie]

12 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said:

....and I thought Davis made Cook expendable.  What a difference a few months makes.  

 

Davis needs to be better.   He is to good a player to play this bad.  He lacks Cookie's vision or speed, but he looks timid and timid running is death to a running back.

This was most fan's hope that Davis was a #1-A running back. As preseason went on, we could see Davis was not going to make us forget Cook. It made Josh appreciate Jimbo even more. Ty Johnson should be #2 and Gore and Davis need to switch spots. If we lose Davis through the PS, so be it. Only thing I'd hate to lose is his Kentucky connections with Max and Walker. Seem like a tight knit group.

[colin]

13 hours ago, ganesh said:

Ray Davis was the 128th pick in the NFL Draft - drafted in the 4th round.  It is kind of insane to think that he is going to account for 30% of snaps at where he was drafted unless we caught lightning in a bottle.

 

i admit, i thought he was a round earlier.

 

still -- we have holes at CB and S, last year it was DT, this year it seems to be LB and most def WR, but we keep throwing reasonable picks (im not knocking the cook pick, i was a booster then and even more now, talent matters more than position) at a position we already have a platoon at, and one of the easiest to find a replacement level player at, leaving huge depth holes in the roster.

 

being down a single corner (albeit our best one) and a safety basically took us out of the afc chip game, but if we brought in a practice squad guy over davis or whoever at arb, what difference would it make to our O?

 

that's my gripe.

[TBBills Fan]

After this past week how does everyone feel?

 

Anyones change their opinion or feel more strong about their opinion 

Edited 13 hours ago by TBBills Fan

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Go back and read the comments in the Cook thread. There were people that posted he was just as good as Cook which is laughable. 

I was one of those that thought he would be a solid backup. Now im not so sure. He made some bad cuts yesterday back inside when as Cook did the opening was further outside. Now maybe he was told to stay in bounds, but this was way before there was 5 min left so the clock would have restarted anyways.

Maybe giving Gore a chance to play for a week against Miami wouldn't be the worst idea. 

All that said, backup RB is not in the top 10 issues this team has.  Injuries at multiple spots and lack of WR talent is much bigger issue. 

[Bills Fan in MD]

55 minutes ago, TBBills Fan said:

After this past week how does everyone feel?

 

Anyones change their opinion or feel more strong about their opinion 

I thought he looked pretty meh yesterday, and I kept thinking that this team could be in trouble if Cook ever needs to miss a game or two (anything more would be terrifying).  I'm not sure Gore is the answer, but at some point he couldn't be worse than Davis.  

[hondo in seattle]

He's averaging 2.1 ypc so far this season versus 3.9 last year.  

 

He's a complete JAG who doesn't find or hit running lanes as quickly and decisively as Cook.  Looks more like a PS player than a second teamer. 

[billsfan_34]

On 10/2/2025 at 12:57 PM, TBBills Fan said:

So Ray Davis said he dropped about 15 lbs and wanted to be more elusive. However, that is not what brought him to the big leagues and so far this year we are seeing a much less productive Ray Davis. 

 

In the preseason he looked awful and so far this year he has looked awful.

 

So I am curious as to if the staff will use a call up soon on Frank Gore Jr, put him in Davis role, make Davis inactive and see if that is an upgrade. 

 

We have 3 call ups, so at one point would you say, ok let's see what Gore can do for us this year?

 

After all, Gore ran behind the same backups that Davis did in preseason and looked much better. 

 

Goes stats in 2025 

11 carries, 29 yards, 2.6 yards per attempt. 

 

We will need someone to spell Cook...

 

So if you had a say, would you give Gore a call up and make Ray inactive to see if this helps. And if so, how long a leash are you giving Davis before you do this?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/gamelog/_/id/4429501/ray-davis

 

We can't expect Cook or any running back to have almost 400 touches....

Ray Davis has looked awful but limited touches.

[Kirby Jackson]

He sucks. He has slow feet. I wonder how everyone didn’t see that coming?

 

The much more surprising thing is Ty looking slow too. He’s obviously smart and a good blocker. He’s good in the passing game. He just looked a lot quicker last year. Maybe he’s dinged?

[gobills404]

Against the panthers he looked like he did last year which is “meh”. Good news is with Cook balling out Davis being “meh” for a handful of touches each game is all we need. Just let the OL and TEs do their job and don’t fumble.

[TBBills Fan]

9 minutes ago, billsfan_34 said:

Ray Davis has looked awful but limited touches.

Yeah but how long can we use limited touches to justify 2 yard per carry?

 

Those are awful numbers. 

[Best Williams Available]

10 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

He sucks. He has slow feet. I wonder how everyone didn’t see that coming?

 

The much more surprising thing is Ty looking slow too. He’s obviously smart and a good blocker. He’s good in the passing game. He just looked a lot quicker last year. Maybe he’s dinged?

Or maybe Cook is lighting quick and make these avg players look below avg? I’ve watched a lot of football over the years and Cook’s running style is very unique. I don’t know who he runs like, maybe Eric Dickerson? But he’s a top 2-4 back in the league and these other guys pale in comparison to him now.

[947]

1 hour ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

All that said, backup RB is not in the top 10 issues this team has.  Injuries at multiple spots and lack of WR talent is much bigger issue. 

 

Backup RB is very much in the top 10 issues we have, we just haven't had a reason to care about it yet. If Cook missed a game, we'd have no way to move the ball with teams keying on the short pass. Both Ray & Ty have looked terrible running the ball.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if we traded for a cheap RB with some juice for a late pick. Maybe they'd IR Ray, who knows.

[Kirby Jackson]

29 minutes ago, Best Williams Available said:

Or maybe Cook is lighting quick and make these avg players look below avg? I’ve watched a lot of football over the years and Cook’s running style is very unique. I don’t know who he runs like, maybe Eric Dickerson? But he’s a top 2-4 back in the league and these other guys pale in comparison to him now.

There are people on this here message board that wanted to let Cook walk because the Bills already had Ray Davis. 🤣🤣 Ray had a pretty decent last year but he was always limited. He’s Zack Moss. If you don’t have burst, you can’t play. I’m surprised, that people are surprised that he isn’t good.

Edited 11 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[NoSaint]

8 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

There are people on this here message board that wanted to let Cook walk because the Bills already had Ray Davis. 🤣🤣 Ray had a pretty decent last year but he was always limited. He’s Zack Moss. If you don’t have burst, you can’t play. I’m surprised, that people are surprised that he isn’t good.

I think there is a lot of confusion between a few respectable runs vs showing the traits that make solid running sustainable. 
 

it’s the classic quoting stats of training camp or preseason heroes instead of talking about skill set. 

[Best Williams Available]

18 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

There are people on this here message board that wanted to let Cook walk because the Bills already had Ray Davis. 🤣🤣 Ray had a pretty decent last year but he was always limited. He’s Zack Moss. If you don’t have burst, you can’t play. I’m surprised, that people are surprised that he isn’t good.

People who couldn’t see Cook was worth paying didn’t watch the Chiefs AFCCG because he was the best player up to and including Josh Allen on the Bills that day, and for the better part of the season. I think him wanting to get paid for it made these folks think he’s expendable.

[Pete]

8 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

He sucks. He has slow feet. I wonder how everyone didn’t see that coming?

 

The much more surprising thing is Ty looking slow too. He’s obviously smart and a good blocker. He’s good in the passing game. He just looked a lot quicker last year. Maybe he’s dinged?

Ray dropped 15 pounds, (not a good decision- Bills need a power back), yet still seems slower that last year.

[Kirby Jackson]

17 minutes ago, Pete said:

Ray dropped 15 pounds, (not a good decision- Bills need a power back), yet still seems slower that last year.

Even with the weight, he wasn’t good. I suggested that they should have tried to trade him in the offseason before people realized he wasn’t good. If we are being real, he shouldn’t have been a roster lock this year despite decent numbers last year. The numbers exceeded the skillset. 
 

He’s Zack Moss. They don’t need him at all; they have a better back on the PS. He’s here this year and by all accounts a great dude. He’s just the perfect example of settling. He came in this year as the unquestioned number 2 and many people wanted the Bills to let Cook walk and turn the reigns over to him. 🤣🤣 Fortunately, the Bills were smart enough to get the Cook deal done despite the pushback from the elite football minds calling WGR. @NoSaint hit the nail on the head with people reading box scores instead of looking at skill sets.