For most of his four seasons with the Buffalo Bills, I really didn’t have a problem with Stefon Diggs’ mercurial nature, chalking it up to the well-worn axiom that these days, you just come to expect that star NFL wide receivers are going to be divas.
Diggs is a diva, plain and simple.
He could be a little exhausting in that regard, and we knew this about him from his days in Minnesota before the Bills acquired him in a trade. It wasn’t much of an issue in Buffalo, though, until it bubbled to the surface during and then after the playoff flameout against Cincinnati in January 2023.
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We, meaning the media, the fans, and most importantly his teammates and coaches, put up with it because in his first three seasons with the Bills, he was a tremendous player, the kind of player of whom you wondered, “What would the Bills do without this guy?”
And that was a valid argument because with Diggs soaring the way he was, the Bills ranked second, third and second in points scored, and third, fifth, and second in yards gained those three years. Josh Allen, regardless of what Diggs’ brother Trevon thinks, was the primary reason for that unbridled success, but Diggs was his unassailable wing man.
The numbers speak for themselves. In those first three years, Diggs was brilliant. He led the NFL in both catches (127) and yards (1,535) in 2020, the first Bills player to ever do that on his way to setting team records in both categories. In 2021 and 2022 his numbers dipped ever so slightly but he still topped 100 catches and 1,000 yards while his touchdowns increased from eight in 2020 to 10 in 2021 to a team-record-tying 11 in 2022.
But the proverbial worm turned that dark, snowy day when the Bengals drummed the Bills 27-10 at Highmark Stadium. Diggs’ sideline meltdown when he was caught on the network broadcast screaming and waving his arms at Allen about something, followed by his immature bolting from the locker room after the game before coach Sean McDermott had even addressed the team, was abhorrent behavior for a team captain.
It was his competitive nature, many said. Nah, it was childish and selfish, and it was a precursor to the 2022 winter/spring of discontent when Diggs spent his time sending out cryptic messages on his social media channels, stirring a fan base already rubbed raw by the loss to Cincinnati, all the while skipping the entire Bills’ offseason program.
At the time, my opinion was that it wasn’t all that big a deal for him to blow off what I consider the silly season, those OTA sessions that mean virtually nothing to a veteran player. That stuff might be necessary for young players and bottom of the roster players trying to make a team, but for veterans like Diggs, they should not have to be at a team facility in April and May sitting through meetings, walking through drills, and then playing touch football. I’ll stand and die on that hill if necessary.
However, when Diggs created the needless drama on the eve of the first day of the team’s mandatory minicamp in mid-June – which I do believe all players should attend – that’s when I started to wonder about what Diggs’ deal was. Until that point, I didn’t question his desire to be in Buffalo and play for the Bills, but this changed it for me.
Yes, Diggs did show up, but why didn’t he practice that first day? Instead, he met with McDermott, Brandon Beane, and Allen, apparently to clear the air about what he was feeling in the months after the Bengals game. OK, fine, have the kumbaya talk, but why not go out and practice with the rest of his teammates?
McDermott clearly botched the handling of that and made things worse. A ravenous media and fan base wanted to know where things stood with Diggs and when he was asked whether Diggs was there that day, McDermott said he was not. When asked if that concerned him, he said it was “very concerning.”
All the while, as McDermott admitted the next day, Diggs was there but the coach gave him permission to opt out of practice and leave. So, semantically Diggs was not at One Bills Drive when McDermott was asked, and all that did was set off a firestorm because everyone thought Diggs hadn’t even bothered to show up.
It was such a stupid day for the organization and McDermott’s role was central to that, but here’s the thing: Diggs should not have been excused. He was there and he should have been on the field with everyone else. Further, he should have spoken to reporters afterward to put all of the nonsense of that offseason in the rearview mirror, but he declined. Instead, all of it festered until the first day of training camp.
And now here we are, less than a year later, and Diggs has been traded to the Texans. Here are three reasons why I think the Bills did the right thing.
The Diggs-Allen relationship seems fractured
Despite Allen continually saying that Diggs is his “brother” it seems like their relationship has cooled. Since the Bengals debacle, Diggs has put out weird messaging on social media, some of which can be construed as veiled pot shots at Allen. His brother Trevon only served to fan the flames that Stefon wanted out of Buffalo.
This, of course, sure comes off as selfish. Diggs had five pretty good seasons in Minnesota, but he did not become a superstar, or even get voted to a Pro Bowl or All-Pro team, until he hooked up with Allen. All of his key statistics with Buffalo, accumulated in just four years, dwarf his five-year production with the Vikings.
It’s hard to understand why Diggs has apparently turned on the quarterback who elevated his game. Only Davante Adams has been targeted more than Diggs in the last four seasons, and no one has more than catches (441) than Diggs. What more could Diggs possibly want from a quarterback, and an offense?
Diggs’ viability as a No. 1 receiver has slipped
His production took a downward turn over the last three-plus months of 2023 and it looks pretty obvious that the 30-year-old Diggs has begun a gradual decline. He’s still a very good player, but he’s not the player he was when he first arrived in Buffalo.
All looked fine when he came out flying last season with five 100-yard games in the first six weeks, but he hit the skids and never topped 87 over the final 13 games counting the postseason. Some have pinned this on new offensive coordinator Joe Brady wanting to run the ball more and diversify the passing game, and that’s part of it, but another factor is that Diggs had a tougher time winning routes, especially when he was going against top-tier cornerbacks.
For a sampling, with the caveat that he didn’t face these players on every route but saw them quite a bit: He had just three catches for 34 yards against the Broncos and Patrick Surtain II; 7-45 combined in two games against the Chiefs and L’Jarius Sneed; 4-27 against Sauce Gardner and the Jets; 5-29 against Asante Samuel Jr. and the Chargers; and 4-26 against Jonathan Jones of the Patriots.
Diggs’ 58 catches that resulted in first downs, his 1,183 yards receiving, 11.1 yards per catch, 7.4 yards per target, and 41.9% contested catch success were all his lowest marks with Buffalo. Simply put, he’s no longer the dominant player he once was, and now on the wrong side of 30, that’s a trend that isn’t going to reverse course.
Now was the right time to eat the money
Given those sagging statistical mileposts, Diggs no longer projects as a huge money No. 1 receiver, so the Bills decided now was the time to move on, presumably with a plan to replace him with someone in the first round of the upcoming draft because if they don’t do that, then this trade must be questioned.
Diggs was going to count $27.8 million on the Bills cap this year and $27.3 million in 2025. By trading him, the $27.8 million cap plus all of his future salary goes with him to Houston. In Buffalo, it is replaced by a one-time $31.1 million cap hit which is all the prorated bonus money he has already pocketed which the Bills now have to immediately absorb on their 2024 cap.
But when you do the math, that means they are only accounting for around $3.3 million more in Diggs money this year than they would have if he was here. True, that $31.1 million is the largest non-quarterback dead cap hit in NFL history, but it doesn’t really kill the Bills.
And down the road, it helps them greatly because all of Diggs’ money is off the books in future years, greatly brightening their cap situation for 2025 in particular, but also 2026 and 2027.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal’s newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link:https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
