The Buffalo Bills did not get a lot in return for star wide receiver Stefon Diggs when they decided to trade him to the Houston Texans on Wednesday morning, receiving just a 2025 second-round pick. The team will also have to eat about $30 million in dead cap space after parting ways with the star receiver. It seems like a pretty lopsided trade, but the Bills got something else in return for sending Diggs to Houston – they got him out of their locker room.
As Tim Graham of The Athletic explains, the Buffalo Bills simply lost patience with Stefon Diggs and all of his antics, and they wanted him off the team.
“For a long time, they put up with the passive-aggressive comments, with the All-Pro little brother insulting them and Josh Allen, with other NFL friends proclaiming he deserved better than Buffalo. They endured Diggs’ refusal to ever push back on the chirping. When I asked him about Trevon Diggs shoveling shade last season, Stefon took offense that anybody would dare question his family and altogether ignored the concept of defending the Bills. They hadn’t said anything when Stefon Diggs dragged a team employee whom a hot mic had caught chiding him for being difficult to work with,” Graham wrote for The Athletic.
“As recently as Tuesday night, Diggs seemed to take another shot at Allen’s wherewithal. Replying on social media to someone who opined a ‘top-tier receiver’ is not ‘essential’ to the franchise quarterback’s success, Diggs said: ‘You sure?'”
Graham points out that while the Bills were willing to put up with Diggs for a long time because he was producing on the field, he no longer played like a top-tier receiver toward the end of last season. So it didn’t make sense to put up with his antics any longer.
“Teams tolerate micro-aggressions from a superstar talent who makes opponents quake — not for a player you can trade, along with a 2024 sixth-round draft choice and 2025 fifth-rounder, for a second-round pick that’s 13 months away, which is precisely what the Bills did in a deal with the Houston Texans on Wednesday. They aren’t tolerating someone they’d rather shoo from the locker room for the joy of absorbing a massive dead-cap hit, either.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how this all works out for both parties going forward.
