John Brown's release from Buffalo Bills could benefit second-year receiver Gabriel Davis most in 2021 NFL season

John Brown entered the 2020 NFL season as the projected No. 2 receiver on the Buffalo Bills, but he will have a new team in 2021 as the Bills cut Brown on Wednesday to save nearly $8 million against the salary cap. With the 2021 cap set only at $182.5 million, down nearly $16 million from last year, Brown will certainly not be the last productive player to be cut over the next several weeks simply for financial reasons. The biggest beneficiary of this move on the Bills would appear to be Gabriel Davis – put him on your Fantasy Football sleeper list now.

Brown was Buffalo's best receiver in 2019 when he caught 72 passes for 1,060 yards and six touchdowns, but when the Bills traded for Stefon Diggs last offseason from the Vikings, Brown was no longer Josh Allen's featured target. Brown dealt with injury and COVID issues in 2020 and caught only 33 passes for 458 yards and three scores in nine games -- while Diggs had a record-setting campaign (127/1535/8) and Cole Beasley also put up good numbers (82/967/4).  

In the playoffs, Brown had zero catches in the wild card round win over the Colts, eight catches for 62 yards in the divisional round upset of Baltimore, and four catches for 24 yards in the AFC title game loss to Kansas City. Some team looking for a speedy second or third option certainly will look at Brown, who also had a 1,000-yard season in 2015 with Arizona.

(Other current receivers on the free-agent market: Kenny Golladay, Will Fuller V, Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Corey Davis, Curtis Samuel, Nelson Agholor, Marvin Jones, Emmanuel Sanders, TY Hilton, Sammy Watkins and Breshad Perriman.)

Davis was a fourth-round pick in 2020 out of Central Florida and had a very nice rookie season in catching 35 passes for 599 yards and seven scores. His 17.5 yards per catch led all NFL rookie receivers, and Buffalo's offense didn't really miss a beat when Brown was out and Davis was in. In fact, Davis ran a pass route on 289 of 298 team dropbacks in the seven games Brown was inactive. Davis had two games with eight-plus targets last season and both were when Brown was out.

The Bills operated the league's second-pass-heaviest offense last year and ranked first in three-receiver sets at 94 percent of the time. That trio will now be primarily Diggs, Beasley and Brown – meaning not to expect Buffalo to chase another veteran free-agent receiver. The team, however, is expected to pursue a pass-catching tight end, perhaps Kyle Rudolph, Jonnu Smith or Hunter Henry.

Buffalo is +1200 at William Hill to win Super Bowl 56, the fourth-shortest odds on the board. 

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