Gabriel Davis' 2022 Fantasy Outlook
Yahoo Sports' Scott Pianowski and Matt Harmon discuss Gabriel Davis' epic performance in the loss to Kansas City and his potential fantasy stock heading into next season.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: Can we talk about Gabe Davis for a second? Four frickin' touchdowns. How are we going to feel about Gabe Davis come fantasy draft season next year?
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Yeah, everybody's going to remember that. And look at-- you know more than anybody with the work you do with Reception Perception that it's not like everybody plays receiver and it's the same thing. It's apples and oranges. Players are in different parts of the formation. They run different routes.
But what's really good about Gabe Davis, in addition to being tied to Josh Allen, in addition to just flashing his upside for everybody to see, is that players who are taking at least the opportunities away from him are Sanders, are Beasley, and they're in their 30s. You know, Sanders is in his mid-30s. So it's not hard to see a situation where Diggs is their alpha and then Gabe Davis is their number two receiver, depending on what you make of Dawson Knox, who again plays a different position, has a different role.
It was encouraging to see Devin Singletary spread his wings and be back in the circle of trust. They were always looking for reasons to get Devin Singletary off the field. And they finally just said, OK, he's our bell cow or de facto-- close to a bell cow. He wasn't playing maybe every snap. But they committed to him, a commitment they weren't willing to make prior. The offense was better for that.
So the problem with Gabe Davis is I was excited, like a lot of people were, about Gabe Davis before. I didn't need a four-touchdown game to be excited about Gabe Davis, but he just had a four touchdown game that everybody saw. And, man, he looked terrific doing it. He won contested. He won with his skill, with his acumen. He faked one guy out so badly that the defender fell, but I think that was partially because of the great route that Davis ran.
So it's going to be a case of, yeah, you want to get on that bandwagon, and it's really crowded, and you have to wait for the next bus because the first one is overflowing. So, I mean, did he play himself into like the fifth, sixth round, depending on who comes back next year? I think he's going to be drafted proactively, and you're going to have to decide how much you want him.
MATT HARMON: Sanders is a free agent this year. Doubt he's back with the team after he kind of predictably ran out of gas. Cole Beasley also, if they cut him before June 1st, they'll save $6 million on the cap with just a $1.5 million dead cap hit. So he's a guy, if they're looking to save salary and potentially--
I mean, I don't know what they can do on defense. They've tried to draft defensive linemen. They've tried to build that unit up. But if they're going to use some of that money to potentially keep bringing in kind of that solid group of defensive guys, maybe they do borrow a little bit from the offensive bank there and they release Beasley. Because Isaiah McKenzie is a guy they've been playing over Cole Beasley at times during this postseason run here. You know, he's a guy who gives them a lot of juice there.
And then bringing that back to Gabe Davis, there's a real good chance that he's the number two receiver here pretty unquestionably if both of those guys bounce. And, Scott, I said before the year Gabe Davis coming in to 2021 is not a guy that was-- I didn't think he was ready to be a starter, and the Bills agreed. You know, people forget that Gabe Davis actually last year had a pretty rough postseason. Rough game against Baltimore, rough game against Kansas City, after a great game against the Colts. He was an inconsistent player.
But, man, my offseason analysis of him is he can burn, baby. He can get vertical. He's got speed. He's also a bit of one of these things doesn't look like the other type with the Buffalo receiving corps. I love Stef Diggs, but he's not, obviously, a big-bodied guy. Although ask the fan that he drilled last night, he might tell you that Stefon Diggs is a pretty strong guy at the point of contact. But Diggs is a smaller guy.
Beasley, obviously, a zone-beating slot receiver. Even Sanders is not a big physical presence. Davis gives them something that they do not have. I think if Beasley and Sanders go and Gabe Davis kind of passes the film review test or whatever this offseason, I think it's going to be wheels up for this guy. And pretty deservedly so.