Zach Davidson is acutely aware that the chances of his scoring a touchdown in a regular-season game, at least in 2024 for the Buffalo Bills, probably aren’t great.

Because he sits behind Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox and Quintin Morris on the depth chart, and he’s competing with Tre McKitty for perhaps a shot at the practice squad, Davidson’s practice reps at St. John Fisher University are limited, so if he happens to get into the end zone, he’s going to make the absolute most of it.

“I’m very comfortable with who I am,” he said. “It’s just for a laugh, you know? I like to see guys smile and laugh, have a good time. That’s what I’m about.”

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Yet on Thursday, when he scored during a red zone drill, the first thing he did was look for guard Gunnar Britton, a fellow third-stringer, so he could do the honors of spiking the ball.

“He’s been begging for one the whole time we’ve been in camp,” Davidson said with a smile. “He’s like, ‘Guys, the 3’s always score and we all just run away. Let’s get a big guy spike.’ So I made sure I found him and got him the ball. Coach tells us if we get in the zone to have fun and celebrate with the guys. That’s my challenge to myself and my teammates every time.”

When Davidson scores, whether he spikes the ball or he gives it to a lineman, the celebration never lacks for energy. Back in OTAs, he scored one day while the media was allowed to watch and he did some serious twerking which had everyone cracking up.

“He’s got a lot of juice,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “I don’t know if he’s got the greatest dance moves, but he tries really hard and we love him for it.”

Davidson took a unique path to the NFL. He was an all-state punter in high school in Missouri who also played on the basketball team. One night he had two steals which led to two breakaway dunks which showed off his athleticism, and the head football coach of Division II Central Missouri, Jim Svoboda, happened to be there to see it.

He told Davidson he’d use him as a punter, but also give him a chance to play tight end since he was 6-foot-7, so that’s how Davidson wound up at Central Missouri. He spent most of his first two seasons punting and was honored by the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, but in his last year he became the premier tight end in Division II with 40 catches for 894 yards and 15 TDs. “I had a lot of opportunities and made the most out of it,” Davidson said.

That was enough to convince the Vikings to pick him in the fifth round of the 2021 draft, but he never advanced past the practice squad, and that continued in 2022 when he joined the Bills’ practice squad. Last year, he was primed to compete for a roster spot but he tore his ACL in the spring and missed the entire year.

The time away from football impacted him, and it was then that he decided that he had to inject fun into the game whenever he could.

“Being down, you deal with a lot of the depression of not playing the sport,” he said. “So being back out here I challenge myself to have fun every single day and with that is bringing guys with me and just doing the most I can to stay positive and be a light for our team.”

Allen doesn’t get many reps with Davidson, but he notices the work he puts in. “He’s working extremely hard in the weight room, in walk throughs and special teams,” Allen said. “He’s one of the sweatier guys out there because he’s just always pedal to the metal, balls to the wall. When you got guys that want to work hard and do things the right way, you just feel that much more comfortable with them on the field, knowing that they’re going to be in the right spot at the right time.”

The preseason will be big for Davidson as he tries to unseat Morris, a player who has been the third-string tight end but also a core special teamer the past two seasons.

“It’s honestly hard to see it as a battle from the tight end room because we love both those guys so much and they bring so much energy to the team,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said. “They’re always doing the right thing. Zach knows one speed and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Football is so important to him, he loves it and he flies around out there, and you’re able to see it. And when he has opportunities, he has a unique skillset. Coach (Rob) Boras has done an unbelievable job with him, but he’s put in a lot of time.”

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Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Zach Davidson tries to make Buffalo Bills as punter turned tight end