The Buffalo Bills decided to bring back a familiar face in WR Gabe Davis as they looked to address the wide receiver depth heading into the regular season. He will start on the practice squad as he continues to ramp up.
Davis comes back to the Bills after signing a three-year, $39 million contract last offseason but released after one season. This release was in part due to injuries that cost him just under half of the season. Add in a regime change and players like Davis become expendable.
While the Bills medical staff is familiar with who Davis is, his injury from 2024 may have a bigger impact on his availability and production in 2025, especially since Davis lands on the practice squad to begin the season. Read below for a full injury breakdown and analysis.
Injury History
College Injuries
No publicly reported issues according to the injury analysis back in 2020.
Pro Injuries
2020 Buffalo Bills
Leg contusion, preseason, missed 0 games.
High ankle sprain, right side, Divisional round, missed 0 games.
Outside of an ill-timed ankle injury trying to haul in a touchdown pass against the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round, Davis was healthy during this rookie season.
By video, there was concern for a high-ankle sprain with how he planted on his foot coming down. He managed to gut through the injury in the AFC Championships where they ended up losing to the Kansas City Chiefs.
2021 Bills
Right ankle injury, Week 1, missed 0 games.
COVID, Week 16, missed 1 game.
Once again, a right ankle sprain slowed Davis in the early portion of the season when he suffered the injury in Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He appears to jam his ankle trying to jump and land near the goal line midway through the third quarter in the surprise loss.
Despite not missing any games, he was largely unproductive until mid-November where he broke out for 100 yards against the New York Jets in Week 10. He also didn’t see more than two targets during that span with the exception of 4 receptions on 5 targets for 29 yards and a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins in Week 8.
The only other time he missed was when he had COVID which forced him to miss Week 16.
2022 Bills
Right high-ankle sprain, Week 2, missed 1 game.
Davis was hampered by a high-ankle sprain suffered in last practice prior to Week 2 against the Tennessee Titans. He missed the following game and was slowed by the ankle at times during the first half of the season. He did have several breakout games including a beat down of the Pittsburgh Steelers securing three receptions for 171 yards and two touchdowns.
2023 Bills
Left Knee PCL sprain Week 18, missed 2 games.
Davis managed to stay healthy all year and was available until the playoffs when he suffered a left knee PCL sprain in the second quarter. This was as a result of running into the end zone and tripping, landing directly on his knee.
He attempted to play through the injury until he tried to pivot on a route and the knee buckled backwards. Due to the instability within the knee, he was not healthy enough to play in either of the Bills playoff games.
2024 Jacksonville Jaguars
Shoulder injury, Week 3, missed 0 games.
Knee injury, Week 5, missed 0 games.
Shoulder injury, Week 8, 9, missed 1 game.
Left Knee Medial Meniscus tear, Week 11, missed 6 games, placed on injured reserve. Had surgery to repair the meniscus, PCL, and developed a blood clot during his recovery.
Davis stated on Shane and Matt’s Secret Podcast (21 min mark) that he signed with Jacksonville and played with a partially torn PCL from the previous season. He then pivoted and tore his medial meniscus along with fully tearing the PCL. He underwent surgery to repair both the meniscus and PCL and also developed a blood clot shortly after, putting him on blood thinners for three months.
Buffalo Bills Injury Analysis
Davis has had quite the injury history with many of his injuries occurring in the lower body. His high-ankle and low ankle sprains are notable and have likely led to some laxity within the ankle complex. He has been able to play through many of these injuries with varying degrees of success, but those are more maintenance issues than worrisome problems at this point. It would not shock me if he had undergone an ankle scope at some point to clean out the ankle, but the Bills are very aware of these past injuries and know what they are getting.
His 2024 season injury-wise is the biggest concern moving forward. Meniscus repairs are becoming more common to avoid determinative changes including osteoarthritis. However, PCL repair/reconstructions are fairly rare but not totally uncommon. Both recoveries take between six and nine months to return to play and we are seeing Davis approaching the nine month recovery right now. His full recovery though was delayed by the blood clot which explains why he was not fully ready to sign sooner. This is certainly adding into why he is not full go yet.
Meniscus
The meniscus is two concave structures that are c-shaped and lie over the tibia in each knee. The meniscus is comprised of a medial and lateral meniscus and act as shock absorbers during activity. The meniscus also helps deepen the joint so that the femur can articulate with the tibia, providing stability.
During meniscus tears, a rotational force is applied to the area while the knee is bent and causes a shearing motion, causing a portion of the meniscus to tear. Based on the type of tear and location, surgery may or may not be recommended.
Looking at potential risks moving forward, meniscal repairs have a re-tear rate of as high as 26 percent and 20 percent in the general population but is lower in other literature with as low as 8.7 percent in athletes and 11 percent in other studies involving athletes. 96.2 percent of players return to their prior level of activity compared to 50 percent coming off meniscectomy. Furthermore, there were no osteoarthritis changes detected up to eight years after 80.8 percent of repairs compared to 40 percent in meniscectomy over the same time period. There are some metrics that have shown a decline in agility following a meniscal repair including the three cone and shuttle drill for players participating in the NFL Combine when compared against controls. While there are some concerns regarding that performance, Davis is a veteran with more resources at his disposal than athletes coming off injury and trying to move up a level of competition.
PCL
The PCL is the other ligament in the back of the knee that runs in the opposite direction of the ACL. This ligament helps stabilize the tibia from sliding too far backward to the femur. This ligament is thicker, has a better blood supply, and traditionally does not require surgery.
The mechanism for injury for a PCL sprain is a direct blow to the anterior tibia. This is often seen in motor vehicle accidents when the knee collides with the dashboard.
Factoring in his PCL surgery, it’s not clear whether this was a repair or reconstruction, most surgeons still elect not to fix the injury even when fully torn. Only 33 percent of NFL physicians elect to fix the ligament which is why Davis likely didn’t get surgery to his partial tear in Buffalo. There is minimal research analyzing re-tear rates for PCL reconstruction or repair but it does exist. Failure rates for repairs are anywhere between 5.6 and 15.8 but if the surgery does need to be redone or fails, it was due to additional damage such as the posterolateral corner leading to instability or improper tunnel placement for the graft. Return to play and performance rates are often seen between 90 and 100 percent of players.
Blood Clot
Addressing his blood clot, these do happen post surgical despite proper preventative techniques including use of blood thinner and TEDS stockings to avoid the development of a blood clot. Davis had to be on blood thinners for three months but has since been cleared to resume activities. There aren’t really any restrictions or concerns moving forward with performance or safety, but team doctors will have to watch him a little closer in the event that he has another injury or surgery that immobilizes him for a time period.
Below is a list of players who have dealt with blood clots in their NFL career. Everyone returned to play except Billy Price who retired because of them.
Billy Price
Marquise Goodwin
David Andrews
Kenneth Walker
Max Mitchell
Trey Smith
Shoulder
Finally, his shoulder injury is notable as this lingered for some time without any exact mechanism of injury as early as Week 2 against the Buffalo Bills. He was wearing a sleeve on the right arm then and throughout most of the season. Considering how the shoulder injury lingered, this may have been a neck issue causing pain and numbness going down the arm called cervical radiculopathy. This could have caused difficulty with catching passes and blocking. Cervical radiculopathy is commonly designated as a shoulder issue on NFL injury reports especially when there is not a clear mechanism of injury after watching the film. Davis did have his lowest catch percentage of his career last year with 47.6 percent after having over 51 percent the other years of his career.
Hopefully, this has been cleared up where he has been able to rehab his neck/shoulder to ensure this does not occur again.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I like the Gabe Davis signing. It’s a low cost, high reward move. While he will not play immediately as he works himself back into shape on the practice squad, he is a trusted target of Josh Allen and can take his time to return to play. He has been training on his own and looks really solid to the naked eye but he still shows some minor deficits expected for an elite athlete such as full knee flexion on the left side and crisp pivoting/explosion on the left side as compared to the right side. This video was taken in mid-August.
This would still be plenty of time in addition to the playoffs that could allow Davis to reset his market to get a new contract elsewhere. Davis also brings a veteran presence to the roster especially during playoff time that could greatly benefit some of the younger players on the roster.
I’m not too concerned about his knee both from a meniscus and PCL aspect for reinjury. We may see a decline in performance during the first few games as he returns, but he is not rushing back which affords him more time to get closer to 100 percent. There is some minor concern about his shoulder, but hopefully whatever he was dealing with had the time to heal and preventative measures have been taken to better manage the issue.
I was all for him to stay in Buffalo, but the Bills could not afford him and the market was simply too hot for him not to cash in. He comes back on an affordable contract that allows him to reset his market, the Bills get him cheaper temporarily, but also have a chance to win a Super Bowl this year.
I would like to welcome Gabe Davis back to Buffalo and to remain healthy this season.
Top Photo Credit: Steve Luciano/AP
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