In the NFL, when teams get really bad, they liquidate. Highly paid players help you win games. Winning games won’t get you a very high draft pick. So you start to shed salaries in any way you can.
Such is the case of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who went 4-13 in 2024 and are looking like more of the same in 2025. The Denver Broncos already picked up one talented player off the Jaguars in tight end Evan Engram, who was released on March 6 and signed a 2-year, $23 million contract with Denver on March 12.
The Broncos now have an opportunity to get another one of the Jaguars’ discarded, highly paid players after wide receiver Gabe Davis was designated as a post June 1 release.
“The Jaguars made wide receiver Gabe Davis’ departure official, releasing him with a failed physical designation,” Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams wrote on May 8. “Davis tore the meniscus in his left knee in November and was expected to need six months to recover from the injury, which limited him to 10 games in his only season in Jacksonville … The Jaguars designated Davis as a post-June-1 release, giving them a $5.7 million dead cap hit for this season. The team will see a $794,118 cap savings June 1.”
Typical Meniscus Recovery Takes 6-12 Months
PFT’s Williams does well to point out the recovery on Davis’ meniscus injury was already designated to be around 6 months, so the Jaguars making an issue of him failing his “physical designation” doesn’t seem entirely fair. According to Ortho 1 Medical Group, the typical recovery time from a meniscus is around 6 months but can be a few months longer to return close to 100 percent.
The Jaguars made a clear move away from Davis in the 2025 NFL draft, where they selected wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter at No. 2 overall, where he’s in line for a full guaranteed 4-year, $46.5 million contract.
Davis — nicknamed “Big Game Gabe” — also ends up with one of the great NFL deals in recent memory in terms of work for pay.
In March 2024, Davis signed a 3-year, $39 million free agent contract with the Jaguars for $24 million guaranteed along with an $11 million signing bonus and $13 million average salary. That means he walks away with every cent of the guaranteed money in the first 14 months despite playing in just 10 games with 20 receptions for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns.
What Davis Could Bring to the Table for Broncos
Meniscus tears aren’t considered injuries that change the overall nature of a player like a torn Achilles tendon or some cases of a torn ACL. That means Davis, who is only 26 years old and has never had a major injury before this, should still be in his prime when he fully recovers from his injury.
That could end up being pretty wonderful for the Broncos, who don’t have a proven WR2 option behind 1,000 yard wide receiver Courtland Sutton on the roster.
Davis knows the WR2 role well. He played it on the Buffalo Bills behind Stefon Diggs from 2020 to 2023, including career highs of 48 receptions for 836 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2022. For his career, Davis has 17 game averages of 42 receptions, 682 yards and 7 touchdowns along with a whopping 16.2 yards per reception.
