Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - It's Stefon Diggs week.
The Buffalo Bills face the Houston Texans and their former superstar wide receiver on Sunday for the first time since the April trade between the two teams.
I envy the fan that can just ignore all the speculation and mystery of what got him traded out of Buffalo, and just look back fondly on the career of, who I believe to be, the greatest wide receiver we've ever seen in a Bills uniform.
I wish I could be that way with this player and trade, but I simply can't.
There are logical explanations and irrational explanations for why he is no longer a member of the Bills.
Not getting the ball enough? Absolutely no freaking chance in hell that's the reason we're all sitting here today talking about this.
Just look at what is happening on his new team:
On a Texans offense that has talked about "everybody eats" coming into the season, Diggs' target share is 22.4%. That's good for 36th in the NFL, far below his teammate Nico Collins at 29.3%.
For Diggs, that's a significant drop. His target share by year with the Bills was:
- 2023: 29.5% (9th in the NFL)
- 2022: 28.4% (10th in the NFL)
- 2021: 26.4% (13th in the NFL)
- 2020: 29.1% (3rd in the NFL)
Just under Joe Brady as offensive coordinator, Diggs had 75 targets in nine games, which was 10th in the NFL in that span. His target share was 26.7%, which is 4.3% higher than his current number with the Texans.
With 33 targets in four games, Diggs is on pace for 140 targets on the season, which would be 14 lower than he had in any season with the Bills, and basically identical to the 141 target pace he had in nine games with Brady.
It's not just the volume of targets, it's also the type of targets.
Diggs is playing primarily in a slot role for the Texans. He is fifth in the NFL in slot snaps in 2024, and could be higher if not for the injury to Tank Dell. In three games with Dell lining up on the outside, Diggs' slot percentage was 57.7%. Without Dell last week, it was 46.7%.
In total, Diggs is lining up in the slot on 53.9% of his snaps. The highest it ever was with the Bills? Last year at 30.3%.
So what does all of that mean? It means Diggs is getting the ball shorter than ever before. Playing closer to the prime-Cole Beasley role than the prime-Diggs role.
Diggs' average depth of target is a career-low 6.7 yards for the Texans. A player that was never under 10.5 yards for the Bills has seen more check downs underneath than ever before.
This brings us to one explanation for Diggs' departure that makes more sense than "not getting the ball enough." Diggs is now at his best playing a role the Bills already had.
Early evidence in 2024 is that Diggs has begun the transition to being a slot receiver in the NFL. The Bills have a slot receiver. In fact, between Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, and Dalton Kincaid they have the middle of the field completely buttoned up.
The Bills were never going to use Diggs the way the Texans are, because that would mean all but eliminating Shakir from the offense.
Underlying tension between Diggs and the Bills as an explanation? Sure. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler outlined several events such as Chad Hall being let go as wide receivers coach or his absence on Day 1 of mandatory minicamp in 2023 as points of contention.
"One team source believed that Diggs had grown frustrated with the late-season losses and had suggestions about improving the overall approach to winning that went beyond the specifics of his own role and that his delivery on those thoughts might have gone poorly," Fowler further wrote.
"When asked about that theme, a source close to Diggs said the receiver 'got to the point where he figured, I'm here and they know what I can do, but if we're losing, let me help.'"
More evidence that Diggs' point of contention was not about his own role, but simply trying to figure out some way to get the Bills over the hump. And to be fair to the Bills, it sounds like he may have gone too far in doing so.
However, there are several Bills sources referenced in Fowler's piece, and none ever directly point to getting the ball more as an issue for either side.
Fowler's source points to Diggs' frustration with, essentially, not winning the Super Bowl, which is something Diggs has never shied away from.
There's a lot of dots that can be connected that all point to the same theme: Diggs is such a competitive freak and wants to win so bad that when you don't, tension is inevitable.
In a piece this week by Tim Graham of The Athletic, an anonymous Bills player said about Diggs, "He could suck the energy out of any room."
This quote reminded me of the back-and-forth Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield had this week.
The way I think of Diggs' demeanor is that of Brady, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and if you're a hardcore hockey fan, you know Nathan MacKinnon is this: The psycho competitor that will work his ass off every minute of every day to be a champion, and will hold teammates' feet to the fire if they don't act the same way.
All of those players mentioned, though, are icons. All-time greats. Champions.
But Diggs is not a champion, yet.
It's a risky way to conduct yourself, because if you have the rings, you're an icon for being that way. If you don't have the rings, you can exhaust people you work with, and there's an expiration date.
There's a familiar situation unfolding in the NBA. Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler, like Diggs, is an uber-competitor that will lose his mind if teammates don't act the same way.
Without the championships, Butler has gone from franchise-to-franchise, lifting up each for a time, but get kicked out after a few years because no one can stand him anymore.
And now, despite two championship appearances in four years, there are rumors of an incoming divorce between the two parties.
What about the price tag? The Texans gave the Bills a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for Diggs, which is a steep overpayment for a player of his age and contract. Houston reworked Diggs' contract, allowing him to be a free agent at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Keenan Allen, a player of similar age and contract status, went for a fourth-round pick this offseason when he was traded from the Los Angeles Chargers to the Chicago Bears.
Diggs getting the Bills a second-round pick was rare. Another piece of the puzzle as to why the trade went down.
If you connect enough dots, you arrive at several conclusions for why this relationship came to an end:
You can say Diggs was upset he kept hitting his head on the ceiling in Buffalo. You could say the Bills and Diggs were exhausted with each other behind the scenes. You can say the Bills didn't have the right role open for him in the offense. You could say the Bills took the deal because Houston overpaid.
You cannot say, though, Diggs is no longer a member of the Bills because he wasn't getting the ball enough.
