Doug Pederson: WR Gabe Davis can be 'Swiss Army knife' for Jaguars' offense

When the Jacksonville Jaguars sought to sign former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis, he was supposed to join a group that included Calvin Ridley. After Ridley opted to sign with the Tennessee Titans, a spotlight was shifted to the Jags' newest wideout and the team isn't blinking about how much they value him.

“Gabe is, to me, like a Swiss Army knife. He can obviously run routes, the guy is right around 81-82 targets a year for the last four years if you average them out. He’s a big part of the offense in Buffalo," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said about Davis when asked at the NFL Annual Meetings last week.

In the last two seasons, Davis averaged 87 targets. He's caught 163 passes in four years with Buffalo for 2,730 yards (26.7 yards per reception) and 27 touchdowns. Davis' size, 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, and ability to work downfield are part of why Jacksonville sought him out in free agency.

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"I think he’s going to be another key piece to what we’re doing and we can put him in positions to block, we can put him in positions to run, he’s a good route runner, he’s strong, he’s big, he’s local," Pederson mentioned.

Last season, Jacksonville struggled to run the football. At the midpoint of the season last year, the Jaguars ranked 25th in converting third downs of four years or less at 50.6% converted. The Buffalo Bills, meanwhile, ranked first at 73.5%. While Davis should not be thought of as a savior in that department, his noted ability to block on the boundary will be valued in Jacksonville as the team looking to build its ground attack.

Davis joins a receiving group that includes Christian Kirk, Zay Jones and Evan Engram as the team's top pass-catchers. With Ridley now gone, Jacksonville will have to make up for the 136 targets he drew from quarterback Trevor Lawrence last year.

Pederson gave further evidence that Davis wasn't simply a Ridley replacement. Still, the Jaguars' head coach did grant a partial comparison to Ridley but compared him more so to a different former Jaguar receiver.

“Just his style of play. He’s big, he runs extremely well, he’s physical as far as blocking. There’s a reason why he averaged about 80-plus targets a year. He’s a down-the-field guy, much like [WR] Marvin Jones [Jr.] our first year," said Pederson, adding that Ridley to the comparison, too.

"... not the same speed guy as Calvin, but can affect the defense down the field, is something that we look for opposite of [WR] Zay Jones and mixing in with [WR] Christian [Kirk]. Just excited to have him and work with him.”

When Jones was with the Jaguars in 2022, he drew 81 targets, catching 46 passes for 529 yards and three touchdowns. He was routinely used as one of Lawrence's most trustworthy weapons, catching 29 first downs. By comparison, Davis drew 81 targets last year, converting 34 into first downs.

Davis ranked second on the Bills in first downs behind WR Stefon Diggs (58 first downs). He also ranked second in Buffalo on red-zone targets with 12 behind Diggs (16). Ridley drew 27 targets in the red zone last year, converting six of them into touchdowns. Davis caught five touchdowns in the red zone.

With Davis in the fold, the Jaguars can continue forward with building the team's future receiving corps for Lawrence. Still, that shouldn't, and likely won't, prevent the team from drafting one if they were available to them at the right cost in this month's draft. Just as the team wasn't unwilling to pay both Davis and Ridley this year.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Pederson thinks Gabe Davis is Jaguars' Swiss Army knife on offense