Getty Gabe Davis catches a touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Buffalo Bills are going to face some hard decisions in the near future — and will likely need to accept losing some good players.
Quarterback Josh Allen’s contract is growing and eating up cap space, all while the team has a number of home-grown players who will be looking for new contracts. While the Bills have already given extensions to tight end Dawson Knox and Stefon Diggs in recent months, one insider suggests that another top pass-catcher will eventually be finding a new home.
Breakout Bills Star Could Land on Trade Block
One of the most expensive decisions for the Bills could come in 2024, when wide receiver Gabe Davis is at the end of his rookie contract and would be looking for an extension. The Bills could already be paying a big price for linebacker Tremaine Edmunds in 2023, and Davis is on a trajectory that could make him very expensive.
Windy City Gridiron’s Jacob Infante pegged Davis as one of the 2024 free agents that the Chicago Bears could target in a trade down the road. While it would be difficult to imagine Buffalo parting with the receiver on track to grow into a No. 1 after Stefon Diggs, a trade that nets some high draft picks could be good compensation if they ultimately can’t afford to keep Davis.
The #Bears have a weak 2023 WR free agent class to choose from, but I think they try to trade for a 2024 FA:
• Mike Evans
• Tee Higgins
• Michael Pittman Jr.
• Calvin Ridley
• Gabriel Davis
If this year’s WR trades were any indication, some of these guys could be traded.
The trade proposal could also be a reflection of Buffalo’s success, a roster deep with players coveted by other teams. Earlier in the month, Bleacher Report‘s Brent Sobleski speculated that the Bills could trade All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer to the New York Giants for a fourth-round and a fifth-round pick from the 2023 NFL Draft.
Sobleski’s trade proposal came from a similar idea as Infante’s speculation about Davis — that the Bills could squeeze some value out of a player on an expiring contract who may already be headed out the door in the next season.
Bills Place High Value on Davis
While the Bills may eventually trade away some of the players on expiring contracts, Davis would seem an unlikely candidate. The team appears to have big plans for the third-year wide receiver, who ended last season on a torrid stretch that included a four-touchdown game in the divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
After the departures of Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders in the offseason, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said Davis earned the No. 2 spot in the wide receiving corps.
“It’ll potentially be a new role for him on offense. But I know he’s worked his butt off to put himself in a situation to be there for his teammates,” McDermott said in July, via WKBW. “And I think that’s great. I think that says a lot about who he is.”
Davis also earned a strong endorsement from new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.
“At the end of the day it’s going to come down to, one the mental. Can he handle the mental workload? And two, how hard does he work at it? And for Gabe he has both those qualities at an extremely high level,” Dorsey said.