Gabriel Davis was a big-play machine at wideout for Central Florida. The Buffalo Bills were thrilled to get him in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Here are Davis’ odds at Mybookie to win 2020 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year as well as the Bills’ over/under win total.
- Odds to win Offensive Rookie of the Year: +10000
- Bills’ win total: 9 (over -130 favorite)
As a true freshman at UCF in 2017, Davis played in and started all 13 games, recording 27 receptions for 391 yards and four touchdowns. As a sophomore in 2018, he started 12 of 13 games and had 53 receptions for 815 yards and seven touchdowns.
Last year, he was first-team All-AAC. Davis started all 12 games of the regular season before sitting out the Gasparilla Bowl. He led the Knights in receiving with 72 catches for school single-season record 1,241 yards. Davis added 12 touchdowns, which is tied for the fifth most in a single season at UCF.
He had a 17.24-yard average per reception and ranked eighth nationally in receiving yards per game (103.42) and 12th in receiving touchdowns (12). Davis led the American Athletic Conference in receiving yards per game, was second in receiving touchdowns and third in catches per game (6.0).
Davis was first on the team with 22 plays of 20 yards or more. His 12 touchdowns were two shy of program single-season mark for receiving touchdowns. Davis had four straight games with 100 or more yards receiving–vs. Pitt (151), UConn (119), Cincinnati (170) and ECU (164), which is tied for the second longest streak in school history. On the season, had five games of 100 or more receiving yards, the seventh most in a season at UCF. He also had five games with two or more touchdown receptions.
Gabriel left as one of the football program’s most prolific wide receivers in its history. He’s 10th in receptions (152), seventh in receiving yards (2,447) and second in receiving touchdowns (23).
In September when Davis and UCF had their meeting with Stanford, it was a game that the wideout long had circled on his calendar all year. In that outing, Stanford sported a top prospect of their own, cornerback Paulson Adebo. Those two went head-to-head in the meeting. Davis took care of him with four catches on seven targets with 63 yards and a touchdown.
Davis said the week prior to the game he game into the team’s facilities before dawn to watch film on Adebo. “Watching a lot of film on him, I knew how I could beat him,” Davis said. “I knew it was an opportunity for me to show that I can play with anybody I step in front of.”
A natural hands-catcher, Davis was a big-play threat in college with his ability to win one-on-one battles, relying on his tracking skills and ‘my ball’ mentality.
Davis checks in at 6-foot-2, 216 pounds with 4.54 speed in the 40-yard dash. He was exclusively a perimeter receiver in college, aligning in the slot only 3% of the time over the past two seasons. While he was a big-play guy, he also dropped 14 balls. Davis isn’t particularly quick (4.59 short shuttle) and won’t do much after the catch, but he could make some noise as a vertical threat off the bench in the pros.
The Bills added three receivers in the 2019 offseason (John Brown, Cole Beasley, and Duke Williams) and two this offseason in Davis and Stefon Diggs, who was acquired in trade from Minnesota. Davis projects as a developmental piece in 2020.
“I like Davis,” general manager Brandon Beane said of his rookie. “I hope he doesn’t run too fast, because he plays faster—you know what I mean? Just be 4.58 or something, he’ll be fine.”
Davis ran a 4.54 at the Combine almost hitting the number Beane hoped for on the mark. Most draft experts had the 21-year-old with a third-round grade in a receiver class that was absolutely stacked. In most seasons he wouldn’t have lasted until the Bills’ pick in the fourth round at No. 128.
