The NFL Draft is in the books and the Buffalo Bills draft class has been put together ahead of the 2024 NFL season. In the fourth round, they selected Ray Davis, a big time running back out of Kentucky. He can provide a spark to the Bills in Joe Brady's new-look offense and show why he was a steal.
Following college years playing at Temple and Vanderbilt, Davis joined the Kentucky Wildcats ahead of the 2023 season. He went on to have his breakout year and make his claim of the success he can have at the next level finishing with 1,129 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also became a scoring threat out of the pass game with 7 receiving touchdowns. He was the Wildcats' team leader in flat out getting the ball in the endzone.
All season Davis was good at finding the hole to exploit at the line of scrimmage to find space to run. And when he found that desired space, he was hard to stop running downhill with a stocky 5-foot-9-inch, 211-pound frame. His yards per carry average jumped a lot compared to his time at Temple and Vanderbilt. It ended up being 5.7 per carry which is 1.2 more than his 2022 season at Vanderbilt.
His breakout game came against the Florida Gators when he finished with 280 yards and 3 touchdowns with a 10.8 yards per carry average. Here, scouts around the league really saw what he could do on Sundays with his ability.
The combination of a good running and receiving threat at running back is big time for the Bills. This concept was key to their 2023 season turnaround as James Cook became more of a pass option out of the backfield. Davis can copy this model under Brady and the offense that will be out there for Buffalo in 2024. Ultimately, he can become a strong second running back option behind Cook this upcoming season.