Star goes from one contender to another
After rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud led the Houston Texans to their first playoff appearance since 2019, the reigning AFC South champs aren’t standing pat.
Last week, the team agreed to a trade with the Buffalo Bills to acquire fourtime Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The Bills will receive a 2025 second-round pick – which was acquired from the Minnesota Vikings in a March deal – while the Texans will also land a sixth-round selection this year and a fifth-round pick next year.
In a deal that stands as one of the most significant moves of the offseason, two aspiring contenders shifted their outlooks for both the near and long term.
The Texans now have a go-to receiver for Stroud, the reigning NFL Offensive
Rookie of the Year who this season became the youngest quarterback ever to win a playoff game with his team’s victory over the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round. Diggs, 30, has had at least 100 catches in five of the past six seasons while eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark in each of those years. With top target Nico Collins returning and promising second-year pass catcher Tank Dell working his way back from a fractured fibula, the Texans have flipped one of the league’s most questionable receiving corps before last season into one of its most talented groups.
Diggs is the latest splashy move in a Texans offseason that also featured the signing of four-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Danielle Hunter and a trade for running back Joe Mixon.
In Buffalo, the move represents another significant offseason reshuffling.
The Bills parted ways with several key players amid a salary-cap crunch this offseason, and their receiving corps also saw a makeover with Gabe Davis leaving and Curtis Samuel arriving. Now, however, the Bills would appear to be in need of a new No. 1 receiver for Josh Allen. The Bills are set to select at No. 28 in the first round of the draft, which features a deep group of receiver prospects.
In his first comments after the Bills were knocked out of the playoffs in the divisional round for the third consecutive year, Diggs addressed uncertainty about where he and the franchise stood by telling ESPN he “can’t tell you what the future holds.” Last week, he replied on social media to a user who contended that the receiver wasn’t essential to Allen’s success, saying “You sure?”
The trade leaves the Bills with a dead cap hit of more than $31 million.