Jacksonville’s new regime continues to reshape its pass-catching corps. A year after Trent Baalke gave Gabe Davis a lucrative contract in free agency, James Gladstone is moving on.
Following the exits of Christian Kirk and Evan Engram, the Jaguars announced a Davis release. The $13MM-per-year player is back in free agency after a disappointing Jags debut. The team added Travis Hunter in the draft, and the 2024 Heisman winner team with 2024 first-round pick Brian Thomas Jr. Davis is departing via a failed physical designation, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero notes.
This release will bring a steep price for the Jags. As the team will build around two first-round contracts at the position to complement Trevor Lawrence‘s $55MM-per-year deal, they will incur a $20MM dead money hit by cutting Davis. That is on the higher end in WR history, but incoming regimes are generally less concerned about taking on notable cap hits for previous staffs’ failed investments.
After a productive Buffalo tenure, Davis indeed qualified as a failed signing. The Jags could reduce this dead cap considerably by designating Davis a post-June 1 cut. In that event, the team could take the dead money down to just $5.7MM for 2025 — with the rest of the bill due in 2026.
Davis caught only 20 passes last season, producing only 239 yards — by far a career-low mark — in a season that ended with a meniscus surgery. That contributed heavily to the low yardage total, as Davis missed seven games. The former fourth-round find had arrived in Jacksonville on the heels of a 746-yard Buffalo finale. The former Stefon Diggs sidekick had posted 27 regular-season touchdown receptions with the Bills and delivered one of the greatest receiver performances in playoff history — via a four-TD night in a Bills-Chiefs classic in the 2021 divisional round. The Central Florida alum did not closely resemble that version with the Jags.
Davis’ 2024 and ’25 free agencies will not produce comparable price tags. With the Jags tied to the sixth-year veteran’s 2025 money, offset language could allow Davis’ next team to add him for the veteran minimum. That would slightly subtract from the Jaguars’ dead money total. But they will still take a significant loss here. But Gladstone appears fine doing so, having made a blockbuster trade to secure Hunter as his new offensive centerpiece. Suddenly, a Jags team that had several veteran pass catcher salaries is not tied to much in that area.
Jacksonville carried eight-figure-per-year deals for Kirk, Engram and Davis last year. In 2023, the team rostered Kirk, Engram, Zay Jones‘ $8MM-per-year contract and Calvin Ridley‘s fifth-year option. Baalke’s final offseason featured a push to retain Ridley despite having given Davis a three-year, $39MM deal hours into the legal tampering period. Tennessee outbid both Jacksonville and New England for Ridley, but the Jags were still carrying a pricey skill-position corps. A year later, all those contracts are gone — even if Davis’ could still linger on the payroll through 2026 (depending on a post-June 1 decision).
A boundary wideout known for deep production in Buffalo, Davis ranked as PFR’s No. 23 overall free agent. He posted a career-high 836 receiving yards in 2022 and scored either six or seven touchdowns in each of his four Bills seasons. Davis will head into an age-26 season in 2025, which will certainly give him a chance to bounce back. But teams will certainly be leery of Davis being a Josh Allen creation as his second free agency commences.
