Due to wide receiver Stefon Diggs’ stormy 2022 season finale and months of mysterious social media messages, the Buffalo Bills have been the subject of trade rumors for nearly a full year.
According to one rumor, the upcoming summer may be the ideal moment for the Bills to make the move, moving Diggs to give two young players larger responsibilities. It was suggested by Connor Livesay of The 33rd Team that the Bills would think about moving Diggs in the event that they miss the playoffs this season.
Is the Time Proper for a Trade?
According to Livesay, the Bills may feel more comfortable dealing Diggs now that rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid and second-year wide receiver Khalil Shakir are “progressing nicely.” Though Shakir has 26 receptions for 422 yards and two touchdowns, Kincaid Kincaid has 61 receptions for 495 yards and two touchdowns this season.
Before the Bills defeated the Kansas City Chiefs to go to 7-6, Livesay wrote on December 8 that “Diggs is still one of the NFL’s most talented wide receivers, but the Bills are 6-6 and are currently out of the playoffs.” “If the Buffalo team’s standing doesn’t improve by 2024, we might see a completely new team.”
According to Livesay, the trade would need a partner prepared to take on the large contract of the All-Pro wide receiver.
“Diggs signed a five-year, $96 million contract extension in 2022, and he is only two years into it. Thus, by acquiring Diggs, the organization would forfeit draft capital and assume a sizable deal,” he stated.
With No. 2 receiver Gabe Davis nearing the conclusion of his rookie contract and the cap-strapped Bills having to make some difficult decisions about which free agents to retain, the team may already be losing a significant portion of their receiving corps.
Trade Rumors Are Shot Down by the Bills
The receiver has maintained that there are no issues and he has no desire to leave the team, despite the fact that Diggs’ social media posts last offseason raised a lot of speculation about possible unhappiness, which culminated when he was sent home on the first day of the team’s required minicamp.
It is a position that the Bills front staff has echoed. In an August 1 appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, general manager Brandon Beane stated that the team had never thought about dealing Diggs and that no other teams had contacted them to ask about his availability.
“No, Diggs wasn’t called on.” It’s apparent to me that he belongs to us,” Beane remarked. “It never came up, even if there was a problem, and he was never asking to be traded.”
Beane stated that there were certain matters that needed to be resolved between Diggs and the coaching staff. Diggs was clearly not happy with the team’s season-ending loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the postseason divisional round. When Diggs returned for minicamp in June, according to the general manager of the Bills, work was done.
“It was really never a problem; it was just a matter of us sitting down and discussing how the previous season concluded and coming to an agreement,” Beane stated.
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