Buffalo sending Diggs to Houston
Wideout led Bills in receiving in each of his four seasons
Whether or not he knew a trade to the Houston Texans was in the works, Stefon Diggs’s tenure with the Bills ended with a two-word question, summing up, perhaps, why the mercurial receiver’s commitment to Buffalo was frequently scrutinized.
“You sure?” Diggs posted on X on Tuesday night in response to someone suggesting he wasn’t essential to quarterback Josh Allen’s success.
The Bills and everyone else are about to find out how Allen fares without his favourite target after Buffalo agreed to trade Diggs to the Houston Texans on Wednesday.
In return, the Bills received the Texans’ second-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, which Houston got in a trade with Minnesota. Houston also acquired Buffalo’s sixth-round pick in this year’s draft, and a fifth-rounder in 2025.
The Texans add an established playmaker, who has topped 1,000 yards receiving in each of his past six seasons, to a receiver group already featuring Nico Collins and Tank Dell. Collins led Houston with 80 receptions for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns last season. The Texans, with offensive rookie of the year C.J. Stroud at quarterback, went from worst to first in the AFC South under first-year coach DeMeco Ryans.
For the Bills, Diggs’s departure has the potential of putting a major dent in the team’s chances to contend for a fifth straight AFC East title, something general manager Brandon Beane acknowledged.
“Are we better today? Probably not. It’s a work in progress. And we will continue to work on that,” Beane said, noting his roster is hardly finalized and the season doesn’t start for another five months.
“Let’s be patient and let us work through this,” he added “Was it easy? No. But if you make the best decision for the Bills moving forward, that’s what you do. And you trust that.”
Beane otherwise declined to go into detail into what prompted a move that breaks up an Allen-Diggs tandem that spent the past four seasons rewriting the team’s offensive records.
Buffalo has another big hole to fill at receiver after also losing starter Gabe Davis to free agency. Secondyear receiver Khalil Shakir returns, while the Bills added free agents Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins.
The 30-year-old Diggs has nine years of NFL experience and topped 1,000 yards in each of his past six seasons. In his first season in Buffalo, he became the first Bills player to lead the league in both yards receiving (1,535) and catches (127). Overall, he has 1,178 catches for 9,995 yards and 67 touchdowns since being selected by the Vikings in the fifth round of the 2015 draft out of Maryland.
In an off-season where Beane focused on slashing a bloated payroll, by cutting key players to get under the salary cap, trading Diggs actually adds more than $3 million (U.S.) to Buffalo’s total this year.
Another issue involving Diggs were growing questions over whether he had worn out his welcome in Buffalo, similar to the concerns that were raised that led to the Vikings trading him to the Bills in March 2020.
Accomplished as Diggs was in leading Buffalo in receiving in each of his four seasons, his sideline outbursts and cryptic messages posted on social media had become a growing distraction.
“Certain things need to be kept in-house as far as how a decision was made or what all factors in specifically,” Beane said. “I think you just have to trust that this decision was made in the best interest of the Bills going forward.”