Stefon Diggs’ four-year stay with the Buffalo Bills ended in much the same way his five-year stint with the Minnesota Vikings did. There was the growing tension between Diggs and his employer, the cryptic posts on social media and the overwhelming feeling the relationship was headed for a divorce.
The breakup with the Vikings came in mid-March 2020 when Diggs was sent to Buffalo less than a month after general manager Rick Spielman laughed at rumors he might deal the wide receiver. Bills general manager Brandon Beane tired of Diggs’ antics and shipped him to the Houston Texans on Wednesday for 2025 second and fifth-round picks and a 2024 sixth-round selection. (That 2025 second-rounder was the pick the Texans acquired from the Vikings last month.)
The Bills can only hope their trade with the Texans yields the type of return that Spielman got for Diggs. The Vikings received four picks, including the Bills’ first-round selection in the 2020 draft. Spielman used it to grab Justin Jefferson at No. 22 overall. Somehow, Jefferson was the fifth of six wide receivers taken in the round.
This isn’t to say Diggs hadn’t been outstanding in Minnesota and didn’t go on to produce big numbers for Buffalo. Diggs’ arrival gave quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills offense a top-level target. The Bills went 48-18 in the regular season with him and made playoff appearances each year, including advancing to the AFC title game (and losing to Kansas City) in 2020.
The 30-year-old Diggs heads to Houston, having caught 445 passes for 5,372 yards (12.1 yards per reception) and 37 touchdowns in 66 games over four seasons with the Bills. He had an additional 47 catches for 600 yards (12.8 yards per reception) with two touchdowns in nine postseason games.
Diggs’ production did decline last season after a hot start. He had 49 receptions for 620 yards and five touchdowns in the first six games, including five with 100 or more yards receiving. But Diggs did not have another 100-yard game in the final 11 and caught 58 passes for 563 yards and five touchdowns. He went from 12.65 yards per reception in the first six games to 9.71 yards in the last 11.
Either way, no one with the Vikings’ previous or current regime had any regrets. Not when the return was Jefferson, who has established himself as perhaps the best wide receiver in the NFL.
Jefferson is five-plus years younger than Diggs and has 392 catches for 5,899 yards (15 yards per reception) and 30 touchdowns in 60 games. (He missed seven games last season because of a hamstring injury.)
It’s important that Jefferson also has been a low-maintenance player during his time in Minnesota. Wide receivers are often a mercurial bunch and Diggs was no exception in his final seasons wearing purple. Jefferson has avoided posting cryptic messages on social media and providing quotes that media members and fans must examine from all angles.
Of course, this can change.
Jefferson still hasn’t signed a second contract with the Vikings and is set to enter the final year of his rookie deal. General manager Kwesi-Adofo Mensah acknowledged this offseason that the Vikings and Jefferson got “incredibly close” to agreeing to terms last summer on a contract before the talks were put on hold for the rest of the 2023 season.
The exact hang-up in the negotiations isn’t clear, considering no one from the Vikings has refuted that Jefferson deserves a huge payday and likely will become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. But there have been no signs of friction between the Vikings and Jefferson and it won’t be surprising if an extension is agreed upon before training camp.
Diggs, meanwhile, will join an up-and-coming team in Houston while leaving the Bills with a dead money charge of $31.096 million this coming season, according to Roster Management System. That will be the highest dead money charge ever for a wide receiver in a season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. This comes after things looked so good between the Bills and Diggs a couple of years ago that he signed a four-year, $104 million contract extension.
The fact he didn’t play out that extension with the Bills shouldn’t surprise anyone in Minnesota, and, assuming Jefferson does sign a big extension, Diggs will be best remembered in Minnesota for 1) His catch that gave the Vikings their Minneapolis Miracle win over New Orleans in the 2017 playoffs and 2) Ending up being the key figure in one of the best trades in Vikings history.
