If the New Orleans Saints are going to add another wide receiver, it won’t be Gabe Davis. The former Jacksonville Jaguars free agent pickup and Buffalo Bills standout reached an agreement to return
The news was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, whose colleague Jeremy Fowler added that “Davis had several offers from teams that he visited this summer but preferred the familiar home of Buffalo.” Schefter clarified that Davis will start out on Buffalo’s practiice squad before getting bumped up to the 53-man roster once his knee is fully healthy. In addition to the Saints, Davis met with the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers (twice), and San Francisco 49ers.
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It’s easy to see why Davis liked the Bills the most of all. Beyond the obvious benefit of catching passes from the reigning league MVP as opposed to Spencer Rattler, Brock Purdy, a washed-up Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers, he gets to play for the team that drafted him in a city he knows well. He’s receiving more than $11 million in offsets from the Jaguars this year, on top of whatever his new team pays him, so it’s not like money is the biggest factor.
At the same time, it’s easy to see why Saints fans are frustrated at missing out on him. This team still needs help at wide receiver. Devaughn Vele is a largely unknown quantity after being acquired late in the preseason. We don’t know if either Mason Tipton or Brandin Cooks can be reliable targets downfield. The Saints couldn’t recruit Marquez Valdes-Scantling into coming back for another year (he signed with the 49ers after being cut by Klint Kubiak’s Seattle Seahawks), so another veteran would’ve been welcome in the room.
But there’s a small voice asking if this is another case of Mickey Loomis getting saved from himself. Davis only caught 20 passes after signing a $39 million contract with Jacksonville, and the Jaguars saw enough after the first year to move on and take a $20 million dead money hit to their salary cap between this year and next. He’s still recovering from meniscus surgery and isn’t ready for Week 1 anyway. If the Saints had overpaid to convince Davis to team up with them, that deal might have blown up in their faces just like it did for Jacksonville. We’ll never know, but it’s clear they aren’t finished looking for help at wide receiver after making this run at Davis and adding former Montana State quarterback-turned-wideout Tommy Mellott to their practice squad.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: NFL free agency: Saints target Gabe Davis re-signs with Buffalo Bills