Buffalo Bills: Gabriel Davis should be the starter over Emmanuel Sanders

The Buffalo Bills wide receiver position was the strength of this offense last year but that didn’t stop the team from making some changes. Due to salary cap reasons, the team released veteran John Brown and replaced him with deep threat Emmanuel Sanders.

While Sanders is the veteran, the answer to the starting outside wide receiver position opposite Stefon Diggs should be second-year wide receiver Gabriel Davis.

Davis was a fourth round pick by the Bills last year and played very well as a rookie. He finished the year with 35 receptions, 599 receiving yards, and seven receiving touchdowns, which was second on the team.

He proved in the second half of the year, when John Brown was dealing with injuries, that he is more than capable of being the starter. He started nine out of the final 10 games for the Bills and the Buffalo Bills would go on to win every game that Davis started.

He showed he could be a deep threat for this team with four of his seven touchdowns going for 20 or more yards. This is an impressive number when compared to Emmanuel Sanders, who is viewed as a deep threat and has had only two touchdowns over the past two seasons that were 20 or more yards. Davis also was a sure-handed target for Josh Allen with only three drops and a drop rate of 4.8%.

Even though I believe that Gabriel Davis should be the starter, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Emmanuel Sanders won’t see the field much this coming season. In fact, the Bills last year had three or four wide receivers on the field for 86% of their plays, according to Sharp Football Stats.

Gabriel Davis is expected to be a big part of this offense moving forward but the coaching staff shouldn’t wait. He should be the starter for this offense this year after putting together a good rookie season where he proved he was capable of handling the responsibilities.