Wideout Gabe Davis is an intriguing free agent option for the Giants despite a November meniscus injury in Jacksonville, which is why last week’s visit with the team brought intrigue.
The former Bills receiver stretched the field for Josh Allen’s Buffalo offense from 2020-2023, averaging 16.74 yards per catch over that four-year span.
He shattered the NFL record books with an eight-catch, 201-yard, four-touchdown playoff outburst against the Kansas City Chiefs in Jan. 2022.
And Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll and new Giants assistant quarterbacks coach Chad Hall all know Davis well. Hall even coached Davis with the Jaguars for his one year in Jacksonville last fall.
Still, veteran receiver Allen Robinson II believes that the Giants already have an explosive downfield threat on their roster that they haven’t fully deployed.
And Robinson would like to see his former Giant teammate Jalin Hyatt receive more opportunities to show what he can this spring before the team goes shopping for someone else.
“Something they missed last year was being able to create those explosives down the field,” Robinson said over the weekend on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “Gabe Davis is a really good player. Style of play, as far as what Gabe did in Buffalo, he was a pretty low-volume guy, some big targets, made a lot of plays on scrambles with Josh Allen, made a lot of plays on posts and go-balls.
“I think you’ve got to kind of find out where Jalin Hyatt can fit into that role,” Robinson continued. “I know Gabe Davis will have some familiarity, but if I was the Giants right now, rather than bringing in another receiver, I would be trying to figure out how do we unlock and untap Jalin Hyatt’s potential.”
Hyatt, 23, is a 2023 third-round pick who has become a marginalized afterthought in Daboll’s offense despite some rookie flashes.
The former Biletnikoff winner — as college football’s top receiver in 2022 — caught 23 passes for 373 yards and a 16.2 yards per catch average in his first Giants season in 2023.
Then his usage fell off a cliff last year. He asked to be traded. And now the Giants’ pursuit of a proven NFL player to fill the same role does not look promising for Hyatt’s ability to regain trust in New York.
Nevertheless, Robinson sees this is a good time for the Giants to throw Hyatt back into the mix before they move to replace his skill set.
They have new quarterbacks and at least a full spring — if not summer’s training camp, as well — to evaluate Hyatt’s growth and ability to step up in this pivotal season.
“It’s still early,” Robinson said. ‘At least see it out through the OTA process, mandatory minicamp. Give him another offseason program to see if that can improve.
“He has new quarterbacks, as well,” he added. “Russell Wilson like to push it down the field in the play action game. Jameis [Winston] always loves to push it down the field. Having Jalin right now on your roster, maybe they can sit tight and see how that plays out. He is a young, explosive receiver, and not many teams have those guys just sitting around.”
The new quarterback point is relevant. Daniel Jones was not to blame for all of the Giants’ offensive shortcomings, but he and Hyatt never developed consistent and productive on-field chemistry.
Jones at times showed a reluctance to push the ball downfield — or couldn’t push it due to poor pass protection. And when he did, he had a much clearer connection with Darius Slayton, his 2019 NFL Draft classmate.
So last season’s most common three-receiver set featured rookie Malik Nabers and Slayton on the outsides and former 2022 second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson in the slot.
The logic behind pursuing Davis makes sense, therefore, to complement a quarterback room more likely to throw the ball deep:
Playing Davis or Hyatt regularly on the outside could allow Daboll to move Nabers into the slot, with Slayton on the opposite side. Then Wan’Dale Robinson could serve a more appropriate rotational role as a backup slot, fourth receiver inside, part-time ballcarrier and returner perhaps.
Allen Robinson wants to see Wan’Dale more involved than that. He simply likes the Giants’ options.
“Being able to get Nabers inside more I think will help a lot,” Allen Robinson said, “from teams not being able to identify where Malik will be. And Darius Slayton can also be intertwined inside and outside. They have a lot of flexibility on certain scenarios that may cause for having a blogger slot. They have those guys on the roster. And they have Jalin who can help them stretch the field. That’s what I’d like to see, but Gabe Davis is a really good player. So we’ll see.”
Davis, 26, wouldn’t just add production on the field. He’s also a steady locker room presence, a high-character player and teammate, a worker who would rub off positively on a young team, despite still being young.
And he caught 27 touchdowns in 64 regular season games for the Bills — not to mention that he had a TD catch in three of the four Bills playoff games in which he played at least 40 snaps.
“He’s coming off an injury. He was cut by Jacksonville, so he came up for a visit,” Schoen said on the Up & Adams Show last week. “He hadn’t been in New York or seen the facility or staff. So just a little get-to-know meeting … went out to dinner. And we’ll see if anything transpires here down the road.”
So maybe Davis will be a Giant soon enough.
Hyatt’s former teammate, though, wants to see the Giants focus on what they already have first.
“Seeing what he did as a rookie, being able to be effective at low volume, I think that’s something they need,” Robinson said. “If they’re able to get that from somebody already on the roster, somebody they don’t have to pay [as much as a vet]. I think they can get those things with the way their current receiver room sits.”
