Bills named potential landing spot for recently unretired former Top 5 pick

One outlet has identified the Buffalo Bills as an ideal landing spot for former Tennessee Titans and New York Jets wide receiver Corey Davis.

Dec 4, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; New York Jets wide receiver Corey Davis (84) in action during the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports / Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

At what point is it too late to bet on talent?

It’s never a bad idea, in any profession, to take a swing on a candidate with a robust and applicable skill set who simply hasn’t found success elsewhere—perhaps your situation can be the one to finally breed success in the applicant. 

With regard to professional football, however, there comes a time when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, when it simply doesn’t make sense to bet on a player despite their past draft position or production. It’s often difficult to determine when, exactly, that point is; when it comes to Corey Davis, however, it looks as though the train has already left the station.

The wide receiver has always had his fair share of supporters, even when the Tennessee Titans bucked draft boards by taking him with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. The Western Michigan pass-catcher was widely viewed as one of the better wide receivers in a class that also included Mike Williams and John Ross, but a top-five selection, even at the time, was considered a bit steep.

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He never quite lived up to the bill; he caught 207 passes for 2,851 yards and 11 touchdowns throughout his four years in Nashville, never sticking out as a particularly poor player while concurrently never living up to the expectations typically associated with a top-five pick. His best season came in 2020 when he caught 65 passes for 984 yards and five scores, a stat line that allowed him to sign a lucrative three-year deal with the New York Jets in the 2021 offseason. 

Injuries prevented him from ever making a consistent impact in the Big Apple, catching 66 passes for 1,028 yards in 22 games over two seasons. He announced his retirement ahead of the 2023 season; he applied for reinstatement in late March, with the Jets releasing him and, thus, allowing him to enter free agency.

Davis still remains without a club, but one outlet believes that the now 29-year-old would be a valuable addition to a Buffalo Bills receiving corps that saw its fair share of turnover in the offseason. In a recent article breaking down remaining NFL free agents who could find homes before training camp, Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine identified the Bills as a smart landing spot for Davis.

“The potential is still there for Davis to be a functional weapon in the right offense,” Ballentine wrote. “He never lived up to his billing as the No. 5 overall pick in the 2017 draft, but he became a good enough vertical threat to be a second or third option.

“The Bills are another team that should be willing to take a look. After losing Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs, they drafted Keon Coleman, but they have a relatively smaller group of receivers outside of the rookie.”

With all due respect to Davis, his acquisition would perhaps be the biggest ‘nothing burger’ signing Buffalo could make at this juncture. General manager Brandon Beane has described his team as one “in transition” on several occasions throughout the offseason—the team deliberately moved on from veterans at several positions in an effort to ascend its younger players into more prominent roles. 

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Perhaps no position was more heavily impacted by this philosophy than the receiving corps—with Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis gone, the 24-year-old Khalil Shakir and 21-year-old Keon Coleman figure to feature prominently in the team’s aerial attack. Second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid should also benefit from their departures. Signing a 29-year-old recently retired receiver who has never lived up to his potential would go against everything the Bills have done at wide receiver this spring.

Besides, Buffalo already has a bevy of veterans and reclamation projects at the position, eliminating any real necessity for a player like Davis. The team added Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (whom Ballentine incorrectly writes plays for the Jets in his article) in the offseason, also signing Chase Claypool and K.J. Hamler to give them the opportunity to rekindle their respective careers. 

Signing Davis would simply add another body to a Buffalo pass-catcher group that’s in no way devoid of options. It would be heartening to see the wideout ultimately land with another NFL club, but the Bills simply do not make sense.