Brandon Beane has received fair criticism in recent weeks for some of his underperforming draft picks. But no one is required to have a feud with the wide receiver the Bills ripped off in the fourth round in 2020.

Gabriel Davis was an absolute target for Beane and his staff, the best spread the team have found in the bottom half of a draft since they caught Steve Johnson in 2008. One of these days Davis could make some comparisons. with a fourth round steal. who ended up in the Professional Football Hall of Fame: Andre Reed.

In two seasons in the NFL, Davis has shown an uncanny knack for the most vital of footballing skills: finding the end zone. The Central Florida product, the 128th pick in this 2020 draft, has now played 30 regular season games in the NFL. He has 64 receptions – and 13 of them have been hit.

Davis played the first two touchdown game of his career on Sunday, scoring on Josh Allen’s 20- and 14-yard throws in the second half of a sad but essential 31-14 victory over the Carolina Panthers at Highmark Stadium. .

Considering more playing time with Emmanuel Sanders sidelined by a knee injury, Davis did what he normally does: he produced. Davis had five catches for 85 yards, tying his season high in receptions. The 85 yards were the third greatest of his career. He has a receiving TD in three straight games.

“It’s great,” said Davis after the Bills ended a two-game losing streak and improved to 8-6, one game behind the Patriots in the AFC East. “We’ve all put in a lot of time in the offseason to be able to step onto the pitch and have the opportunity to show the fans and the world what we’re doing. Just being able to have the opportunity to go out and do it is special. “

The question is why he hasn’t been in the field more often. The Bills signed veteran Sanders in the offseason to be their nominal No.2, likely because they didn’t think 22-year-old Davis was quite ready for such a demanding role for a Super Bowl contender.

But watching Davis make the most of his playing time and continue to find the end zone, you wondered if Sanders’ move was really necessary. With each dynamic performance, it becomes clearer that Davis deserved the # 2 role.

Sanders was useful as a weapon and alleged team leader. But in retrospect, the money – and here’s another blow to the GM – could have been better spent on another offensive lineman or an extra defensive back.

Davis had to wait his turn as Josh Allen and Sanders developed some chemistry in the passing game. He was not targeted in Game 2 of the season and only had one goal in each of the following three games. Granted, the Bills won those games. But he might have made a difference if they had used him more in a grisly loss to the Jaguars, when Davis had no catches and two targets.

Sanders’ injury forced a move that may have been late. Against Tampa Bay, Davis had 65 snaps, 83% of the attacking total. He made a huge impact, scoring a 4-yard touchdown to reduce the Bucs’ lead to 27-24 with 4:54 to go, then battling for a critical first down on a fourth and 4 on the tying record. who forced overtime.

Davis played at least as much Sunday against the Panthers, and he was easily the Bills’ most dynamic receiver. He had the biggest catch of the day, breaking through the back of the end zone midway through the third quarter and capturing a 20-yard dart from Allen to extend a narrow Bills lead to 24-8. He scored on a 14-yard Allen throw to complete the scoring in the bottom of the fourth.

“I have a lot of confidence in him,” said Allen, who completed 19 of 34 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first Bills quarterback to throw 30 touchdown passes in several seasons. “He’s a strong, physical guy, and he wants it. He wants the ball. It’s good to have these guys. You look at Stef (Diggs) and Cole (Beasley), they want it too. At the end of the day, all we want to do is win games.

Allen was asked if Davis had ever expressed his disappointment at not playing more. “If he was frustrated you couldn’t tell,” Allen said. “He just put his head down and worked hard. He’s a great teammate. He didn’t complain to anyone. He just showed up for work and played hard. When he was asked to make parts, he did them.

No matter how healthy Sanders is, it’s hard to imagine Davis stepping back into a supporting role any longer. A player who scores a touchdown every five catches asks to be targeted regularly. Going back to last season, Beasley has a touchdown on his last 106 catches, including the playoffs.

The Bills have struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone this season. Davis became a favorite target for Allen near the goal line, along with Diggs and tight end Dawson Knox. He has to be more on the field if the Bills are to make a Super Bowl run.

“(Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll) just has a good plan and he’s planning the right plays so that I can have the opportunity to be in the end zone,” Davis said of his scoring skills. “They end up turning to me. It’s that simple.

“When it comes to training with Josh, I always try to show him that he can trust me in certain situations. That’s what I try to keep doing every week. I know when Josh looks at me, he trusts me to play wherever the ball is.

Bills must operate at maximum efficiency in the coming weeks. Two weeks ago, they lost two games to the Patriots in the AFC East. Now they have things under their control. If they win – including in New England next Sunday – they win their second straight AFC East title, based on the division record. If they stumble and finish 10-7, they could be in trouble.

Winning is asking a lot of a team that hasn’t pulled off a two-game winning streak since early October. They haven’t beaten anyone of importance since that thrilling Sunday night win over the Chiefs on October 10.

Sunday, they took advantage of another opponent who was playing without his starting quarterback. Cam Newton, a shell of his former MVP, had a miserable day, completing 18 of 38 passes for just 156 yards. Like the Saints at Thanksgiving, the Panthers had no return to the Pro Bowl, in this case Christian McCaffrey.

As if the Bills didn’t have enough advantage, Carolina setter Zane Gonzalez injured himself in the warm-ups and didn’t play. The Panthers didn’t have anyone capable of scoring field goals or extra points, like a low-level high school team. I can’t remember an NFL game where it was obvious that a team would play there every four tries.

So the Bills won one game against a team without a kicker and six against quarterbacks ranked 28th or worse in the NFL in terms of passing distance: Tua Tagovailoa, Davis Mills, Jacoby Brissett, Mike White, Trevor Siemian and now Newton. .

They don’t have to apologize for beating bad teams. But it’s time to “rack up the wins,” as Allen likes to say, starting with that massive second leg against the Patriots at Foxborough.

“We’re just trying to find ways to win games,” Allen said. “We all know who we have next week. It’s not a secret. We will address them tomorrow and take advantage of it. From now on, every game for us is a playoff game and we have to treat it as such. I’m proud of the way our guys played today.

They might have to win to advance to the playoffs in the Confused AFC, which had 12 teams at .500 or better after the 4 p.m. slate on Sunday. That means winning in New England, where Bill Belichick has a penchant for knocking out a team’s top wide receiver.

This means that the number 2 gap will be crucial in the most important game of the season. The timing couldn’t be better for the Bills to acknowledge that Gabe Davis is no longer a raw rookie, but an aspiring NFL star.

Jerry sullivan is a sports columnist with over 30 years of experience in western New York. Follow him on Twitter @ByJerrySullivan or reply by email to [email protected]