Bench Davis and start Brown!

[Shanahan's Horseshoe]

He’s caught 48 of 93 targets. That’s 51% and unacceptable for a WR2.  The league average is 64% this year.  I realize all of them aren’t his fault but he’s by far the lowest on the team and one of the worst starters in the league for catch rate. Mckenzie is at 64%

[Beck Water]

OK to you “bench Davis start Brown” guys

Nothing anyone says will likely reach you.  Sorry, but when a guy’s been out of football and sitting at home, it’s not because he’s a “sleeper” to take over as #2 80% of the snaps WR.

 

To anyone else, Cover1 just started putting up a bunch of analysis on Twitter in response to Joe Marino and others

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Beck Water

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

Nah, Brown is past his use by date, only good in small doses.

 

I agree Davis is a problem, however what I would like to see is more Cook involved in the passing game, get him the ball in the open field.  Hines as well, just look at the way Mahomes has been utilizing McKinnon.  

Edited January 9, 2023 by Dr.Mantis_Toboggan

[BBills_88]

Gabe Davis plays small

[BillMafia716ix]

We seen what Davis could do on the biggest stage last year when our WR1 was a no show. No way I’m ready to give up on him. He does need to work on his footwork along the sideline but that can be improved on. He’s also been battling an ankle injury all season. He’s not 100%. 

[BananaB]

20 hours ago, BigDingus said:

Can we just trust the coaching staff at this point?

 

Bench Davis right before playoffs? This same crowd was crying to start Elam, and he immediately became the go-to target for the opposition to exploit. Any time Josh plays poorly or the defense gets rolled over, we're also crying to fire McDermott/Frazier/Dorsey. 

 

We had posts on this board whining about everything from Edmunds to Hines, then both end up being crucial to today's win. Yes, there are plenty of flaws to this team, but there's enough blame to go around on EVERYONE. Let's just hope McDermott & Co. have them all ready when it matters most.

Tre is getting picked on, Dane is getting picked on as well. It’s not just one guy playing like crap at CB. Mac Jones had a field day for 3 quarters and all three got targeted.
 

Our coaching staff has a rotation at CB, kind of tells me they are being too friendly with these guys. Davis has stunk most of the year, so has Lil Dirty. Neither has came close to living up to expectations this season. You couldn’t really do to much about Gabe but McKenzie should have been taking a back seat to Shakir long ago. 

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

2 hours ago, Beck Water said:

OK to you “bench Davis start Brown” guys

Nothing anyone says will likely reach you.  Sorry, but when a guy’s been out of football and sitting at home, it’s not because he’s a “sleeper” to take over as #2 80% of the snaps WR.

 

To anyone else, Cover1 just started putting up a bunch of analysis on Twitter in response to Joe Marino and others

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed.  Dorsey has to use him in the slot more.  Just unimaginative.

 

Daboll used Davis alot more in the slot.

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, BBills_88 said:

Gabe Davis plays small

 

Except of course when he comes up huge for the Bills. 

Like with 171 yds and 2 TD

or 6 catches for 93 yds and a TD

or 4 catches for 88 yds and a TD

 

or last year at KC 8 catches for 201 yds and 4 TDs

 

---------------

Davis has averaged 55.7 ypg

That's actually #34 in the league for ypg, which matters to evaluating a WR

 

#2 in the league for Y/R right behind Jaylen Waddle and ahead of AJ Brown

 

#20 in the league for TDs

 

He's a good WR by a number of metrics, taken overall

---------------

 

Here's the problem

We want him to be a great WR

 

We want him to be Higgens to Chase

We want him to be Juju Smith-Schuster to Kelce

We want him to be AJ Brown to DaVonte Smith

We want him to be Thielen to Jefferson

or even

We want him to be Waddle to Hill

 

and he isn't, or at least he hasn't been to date

 

It's really about the drops and the balls that he could have caught, but didn't; the way he hasn't been able to show that "toe drag swag" this season

 

------------------

 

I don't know what's up.  The WR seem to love Chad Davis as a coach

But frankly, I have not been as impressed with our WR overall this year vs. last - the little things, the route running details, the toe taps, the focus

I don't know if it's coaching, or if when Sanders retired and Beasley left, something shifted in the room

[dollars 2 donuts]

 

 

This.  This is what some of us were worried about at the start of the season and this is the point we have been trying to make, supported again here contextually by Joe DiBiase.  

 

Davis is still an asset, but just not a #2 asset, and most certainly not a 1B, either.  

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by dollars 2 donuts

[Beck Water]

On 1/9/2023 at 10:34 AM, ILBillsfan said:

After see ing the review from the backside agreed it should of been caught not sure why he hops there...Seems like he got caught up i need to jump to catch and then last minute oh craddle catch ...... etiehr 3way attack the ball with the hands Gabe catch it with your hands and it gets simpler

 

There do seem to be lapses but he is still a valuable piece on this team, and from the OP should not be replaced with John Brown  GO BILLS!!!!

 

 

 

 

Greg Tompsett perfectly captures the Enigma that is Davis

 

32 minutes ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

 

 

This.  This is what some of us were worried about at the start of the season and this is the point we have been trying to make, supported again here contextually by Joe DiBiase.  

 

Davis is still an asset, but just not a #2 asset, and most certainly not a 1B, either.  

 

 

 

I'm not sure what "have made efforts to ensure he is their #4 when healthy" means

What does it mean?  I know you didn't say it but you quoted it so....

 

MVS is in fact the KC #2 WR.  Who is supposed to be #2 and #3?

 

Now...the catch is, he's their #3 receiver, because their #1 receiver is a TE, but even so, who is #3 that would make him #4?

 

But still..... KC signed MVS to a 3 year, $30M contract and he's currently #6 on their cap with $11M hit this year.  Given that teams usually spend contract $$ according to their intended contribution, I think it's pretty hard to make an argument that KC didn't intend MVS to be their #2 WR.

 

As far as Davis, he is #33 in the league for yards, #3 for Y/R, tied for #14 for TD.  It can not be denied he has some attributes of a quality #3 WR.  The yards, the Y/R, the TD catches.

 

I think what people are looking at is the WR corps on the other top teams. 

We look at Cincinnati with Chase, Higgins and Boyd.

We look at KC with Kelce, Smith-Schuster, and MVS.

We look at Philly with AJ Brown and Davonte Smith.

Even Miami with Waddle and Hill

 

And we go "Dang! Those guys are a Problem for a defense in a way our receivers just Aren't".

 

I suppose we can now cue the posts about me having some unreasonable Davis fan-boy socks now just as I took ***** for it when I objected to all the "cut McKenzie, he totally sucks, he drops more than he catches, he never makes a play" crap

 

But the OP idea "bench Davis and start Brown" is just as cray-cray to me.  Davis is a significant part of the Bills 13-3 record.  His drops are on him, and he's had a handful more throws we really expect a top NFL WR to catch, but Allen and Dorsey have done him no favors both with play design (he often gets the deeper, lower percentage routes), with tendencies (Allen will make a contested throw to Davis whenever Diggs is covered, instead of taking a shorter more open option), and with making uncatchable throws in Davis direction that get charged to Davis as targets.  Allen has also become predictable with the throws to Davis in the RZ, resulting in INTs.

 

He's not a bum or "not a #2 WR", he's just part of a talent gap the Bills have at WR between ourselves and some of the other top teams this season.

 

The problem I think Davis has right now is that the talk is in his head and he's lost some confidence in himself.   I think there's something going on with the WR room/coaching.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Beck Water