Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has had to adjust to a new experienced target every year of his career.
First it was Christian Kirk, Evan Engram and Zay Jones in 2022. Then it was Calvin Ridley in 2023. And now it’s former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis, who already gets along well with Lawrence.
“Just from a personality standpoint, the guy is crazy,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said Wednesday. “I don’t know if you all spent a lot of time with him, but he’s a funny guy. The guys, it’s funny how everyone reacts to him. Everyone just opens up a little bit. He brings a lot of energy. From a personality standpoint, it’s great.”
Lawrence’s liking for Davis goes beyond the kind of energy he brings to the offense and the locker room. The two have built a good rapport on the field over the last few weeks of training camp, with Davis already being considered a major factor in the passing game in Week 1.
“I think he’s just really smart as a player. He understands space, he’s really good in the zone, he’s really good at going out and getting the ball, whether it’s throwing it up or going physical. A really physical receiver, great hands, tough, good in the run game. He can really do it all,” Lawrence said.
“I think Buffalo obviously had a really good core of receivers and they had (WR) Stefon Diggs. There’s only one football, so I think that helped him because he can do everything in his game because he had to do everything. Anywhere he could fit in, he did it and was successful. Now I think it’s going to be great for him to play a little more of a role here. He’s ready for it and he can make all the plays, run any route. He’s great.”
The biggest hurdle to Lawrence’s connection with Davis goes beyond their timing on the court. The biggest challenge is that Davis will be a first-year player in a system that has Lawrence, Engram and Kirk playing since 2022.
“Obviously there’s going to be a learning curve with a new system. He’s probably made all of those plays or very similar ones in his career, but you have to get used to what we call them, what our signals are and what our calls and checks are. That’s the difference,” Lawrence said.
“But he knows all of that because he’s done it all before. As far as the flow of the game and the decisions he makes on different routes, whether it’s a zone look or finding a gap, he’s just very aware and very smart. He knows football, knows space, is quarterback friendly, all those things.
The Jaguars signed Davis to a three-year, $39 million contract in March, but the maximum value of the deal could be as high as $50 million.
Davis, a fourth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft from UCF, caught 163 passes for 2,730 yards and 27 touchdowns in four years in Buffalo. In 2024, he caught 45 passes for 746 yards and seven touchdowns. Davis never caught fewer than six touchdowns in a sea
