For the first time since the Buffalo Bills traded manipulative receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, they’ll cross paths Sunday in NRG Stadium.
Everybody is saying no matter they have to to douse any pregame drama. Bills quarterback Josh Allen has gone out of his manner to be respectful of him. Diggs careworn there’s nothing private. The cornerbacks who’ll attempt to cowl him have shrugged that it’s merely one other recreation.
Even the viewers appears much less this week than some may’ve anticipated. When the NFL launched the schedule 5 months in the past, knee-jerk criticism claimed Bills-Texans deserved prime-time therapy due to Diggs. Lo and behold, CBS Sports didn’t even contemplate the matchup worthy of a 4 o’clock slot or its prime Sunday afternoon broadcast crew.
The matchup feels much less a blockbuster than merely one in every of 272 regular-season video games.
To Bills followers this week, Diggs may not even be the most intriguing, trade-requesting receiver not on their staff. They’ve turned their consideration to pissed off Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams, who desires a brand new uniform. Bills Mafia additionally must be extra anxious about prime wideout Khalil Shakir’s injured proper ankle than seeing Diggs as soon as — as tough as seeing an previous flame for the first time could be.
Our takeaway must be this: The NFL cycle runs evermore, the storylines so fixed that everybody just about is over Diggs even earlier than the showdown takes place. Yes, it will be aggravating to watch Diggs publish huge numbers in a Texans victory, however what distinction will it actually make?
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No sense in pining in despair. The Bills had to jettison Diggs so badly they’re choking down $31 million in useless salary-cap cash. He wished out. He was an issue. The divorce was essential. No regrets.
So the Bills don’t have a prototypical No. 1 receiver once more, a typical prevalence since buying and selling Eric Moulds to the Texans in 2006. But as we’re seeing with Adams and Tyreek Hill and Amari Cooper and any prime dude on a floundering staff, they grow to be out there. That’s how the Bills received Diggs in the first place. They have an proprietor and a common supervisor keen to make a giant transfer when the wage cap permits. Buffalo’s entrance workplace additionally has a greater grasp on asset allocation than when Doug Whaley went down to the crossroads for Sammy Watkins.
Diggs was particular for Buffalo, worthy of his facet in the who-made-who dialog about Allen and the post-drought success. Diggs in 4 years caught 445 passes for five,372 yards and 37 touchdowns. All stats rank fourth in membership historical past, though it’s essential to word Buffalo took considerably longer than most franchises to embrace passing as the NFL manner, making it simpler to climb the ladder. He’d even be fourth or fifth in these classes for the Carolina Panthers, based 35 years after the Bills.
Diggs’ contributions waned considerably after Buffalo fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and promoted quarterbacks coach Joe Brady after beginning 5-5. From weeks 11 by 18, as the Bills had been going 7-2 to overcome the Miami Dolphins for the AFC East crown, Shakir, Gabriel Davis and even Trent Sherfield some weeks had been getting extra offensive snaps than Diggs. Retired cornerback Josh Norman, then on the observe squad, instructed the Associated Press late in the season that Diggs was taking himself out of video games when the offense was on the area. NBC Sports analyst Devin McCourty surmised the Bills purposely wished to show they didn’t want Diggs.
With Brady calling performs, Diggs’ targets dropped to 8.3 per recreation, tied for fifteenth in the league. Diggs plummeted to 10.02 air yards per goal (forty first) and three.7 yards per reception after the catch (tied for 103rd). He caught one landing (83 gamers caught extra) and gained 15 first downs (50 gamers gained extra). He didn’t draw any move interference calls over that stretch. He dropped three passes and fumbled as soon as. Diggs declared it wasn’t his fault.
Bills followers received’t quickly overlook Stefon Diggs’ drop towards Kansas City in the playoffs final season. (Jamie Germano / USA Today)
Those had been simply regular-season manufacturing. He fumbled on the opening snap towards the Kansas City Chiefs and dropped a move on the subsequent play. Everybody remembers the heinous long-ball drop when Allen threw an ideal move, and Diggs jogged again to the huddle with a smile and that mischievous thumb-and-forefinger gesture to let the world know the way shut the Bills had simply come to bagging their postseason nemesis.
The worth of passive-aggression had ceased being value the hassle. The Bills had sufficient of the sideline tirades, storming out of the locker room, loaded social-media posts, little brother and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs’ unchecked snipes at Buffalo and Allen, the petulance. Death by a thousand microaggressions, I’ve referred to as it.
“He could suck the energy out of any room,” a Bills participant instructed me this offseason.
Bills Mafia started to activate Diggs when he dropped that move towards Kansas City, and their opinion of Diggs worsened when he challenged a fan’s tweet that contended “top-tier receiver” was not “essential” to Allen’s success. “You sure?” Diggs poked again.
As such, tears didn’t pool when the Bills despatched Diggs, a 2024 sixth-round draft selection and a 2025 fifth-rounder to the Texans for a 2025 second-round decide.
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Plenty of people who defended Diggs’ habits as unrepentant competitiveness felt like suckers. He’d carried out with the Bills what he did with the Minnesota Vikings in 2020 and manipulated his manner to one other squad as soon as he didn’t really feel appropriately favored.
Down in Houston, they don’t appear to care a lot about Diggs’ previous. He’s having fun with one other honeymoon part, energetic and useful and dynamic by 4 video games. He has 25 catches for 233 yards and two touchdowns, has rushed twice for 12 yards and a landing and accomplished a move for 13 yards. What enjoyable!
I don’t know what sort of sway Diggs has with Houston coach DeMeco Ryans or offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, however I’m skeptical Diggs has labored the penchant for badgering out of his system. Versus his first former staff, Diggs noticed extra targets than anybody — a situation that might work to Buffalo’s profit Sunday if repeated. Two weeks in the past, Diggs caught 10 of his 12 targets for 94 yards. Houston’s prime receiver, Nico Collins, was restricted (by his upward normal) to six receptions on eight targets for 81 yards. Minnesota received 34-7.
Diggs belongs to Houston for this yr solely. He restructured his contract after the commerce. Perhaps that’s higher for each side that they savor the expertise earlier than he exhausts his welcome. He’ll flip 31 subsequent month.
The Bills, in the meantime, have pushed ahead with a mixed-use, “everybody eats” philosophy that seemed phenomenal two weeks in the past over the Jacksonville Jaguars however was a blight in Sunday night time’s ugly blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
The worst that may occur this weekend for Buffalo is falling to 3-2. The equation doesn’t contain Diggs’ presence, actually. Sure, he might go off for 160 yards and three touchdowns, and that may add to the sting, but when the Bills do lose, then the extra urgent concern shall be avoiding three straight losses getting into a Monday night time matchup with the New York Jets at the Meadowlands.
All these diplomatic phrases being mentioned about how a lot the Bills are targeted on themselves and that that is simply one other recreation and Diggs is simply one other man? They’re acceptable and proper.
Yet regardless of how dangerous Buffalo performs or how implausible Diggs appears to be like Sunday, there stays no cause to miss him.
(Top picture: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
