We have two years of evidence on who Ray Davis is as a player in the Buffalo Bills offense. He’s flashed upside in limited bursts, but is clearly not a threat to take any work from James Cook. That doesn’t mean he’s useless in fantasy football, though. Is there a spot for Davis on 2026 fantasy rosters?
Should You Draft Ray Davis in Fantasy Football?
Through two seasons, Davis has been a perfectly capable backup to Cook. Of course, that hasn’t amounted to much production.
In his rookie year, Davis saw a 29.8% opportunity share. That actually decreased to 14.1% in his sophomore season. Although it wasn’t necessarily a role reduction. Cook played every game last season, but two years ago, he missed one due to injury. In that game, we got a glimpse of Davis in a lead-back role, which naturally contributed to his increased total volume that season.
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Davis started in Week 6 of the 2024 season and played 61% of the snaps. He turned 23 opportunities into 152 total yards, posting 18.2 fantasy points without scoring a touchdown. The only other time Davis saw the lion’s share of the touches was in a meaningless Week 18 game that same year. He posted 14.5 fantasy points.
Last year, Davis never had a chance to serve as the lead back, maxing out at just over a 20% snap share twice throughout the entire regular season…until yet another meaningless Week 18 game. In that game, Davis served as the lead back with the Bills resting Josh Allen and Cook. He turned 23 opportunities into 174 yards and scored, good for 25.4 fantasy points.
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Although two of his lead-back opportunities came in games that didn’t matter, we now have three samples of Davis as the Bills’ RB1. He’s averaged 19.3 fantasy points per game.
So, the good news is we know what Davis can do as a lead back. The bad news is we also know he does not matter at all as long as Cook is healthy. In fact, Ty Johnson’s opportunity share was actually greater than Davis’ last season. Johnson also averaged 2.1 more PPG (not that either was even remotely fantasy relevant).
Davis’ Redraft Fantasy Football Value
When it comes to backup running backs, fantasy managers are often overconfident in predicting who the handcuff is and what percentage of the starter’s production he can replicate. There are few situations where we know for sure who the primary beneficiary would be, and that he’s pretty close to just as good as the starter if he got a lead role. Davis is one of them.
Even though Davis is technically the RB3 when everyone is healthy, we have proof of concept. On three separate occasions with a backfield trio of Cook, Johnson, and Davis, when Cook was out, Davis saw the overwhelming majority of touches and was just as good as Cook in that role.
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The ideal type of backup RB to draft is one with some standalone value plus injury-contingent upside. We don’t have that with Davis, which is why his ADP is way down at RB66. He will be burning a hole in your bench for as long as Cook is healthy, which, to this point, has been all but once since Davis entered the NFL.
Davis is currently my RB63. It’s a bit above consensus, but not anything significant. Once you get that far down in the rankings, everyone is largely the same. It all depends on what you need. If your roster construction necessitates a guy who won’t get you zero, then Davis is not your guy. If you are good at running back and can focus solely on upside, throw Davis on your bench and keep him there as long as you can.
Davis’ Dynasty Fantasy Football Value
Typically, running backs who flash upside early in their careers but don’t have the volume are nice investments on the back of dynasty benches. Davis is in just his third NFL season. You would think he’s on track to take a step after his rookie deal is up. Unfortunately, Davis was one of the older prospects in recent memory.
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Before the year is up, Davis will turn 27. By the time his rookie deal is up, he will be entering his age 29 season. He’s trapped behind Cook for at least two more years. Then, how likely is it that some other team wants to make a 29-year-old back with likely fewer than 500 career touches their lead runner?
It’s hard to see a path for Davis outside of a Cook injury. That’s why, despite being so early in his NFL career, Davis is down at RB65 in our consensus dynasty rankings. He’s a nice player. He probably deserves more work than he’s been getting. But without a clear path to some more volume, combined with his advanced age for a player so early in his career, Davis is not an intriguing dynasty asset.
