The writing for a Stefon Diggs exit out of Buffalo may have been written on the wall months before Wednesday’s stunning trade to Houston.
On this week’s installment of the “Tim Graham and Friends” podcast, The Athletic’s Tim Graham chronicled the fallout of the Bills’ overtime loss to the Jets in Week 1 of the 2023 season, revealing how Diggs and Josh Allen’s postgame exchange resulted in the quarterback snapping on the star wideout.
Warning: Explicit language
“Josh Allen was sitting there in full uniform with [backup quarterback] Kyle Allen, trying to console him, and a steam of players coming up, patting him on the back, dapping him up… They were trying to pick the guy up, he had a towel draped over his head and he just sat there,” Graham recalled of Allen in the Bills’ locker room after the season-opening 22-16 defeat.
Graham noted how Diggs approached Allen after the game, something he didn’t include in his original reporting because he wasn’t sure what the four-time Pro Bowler said.
“But Josh Allen snapped at him, and he said, ‘It’s one f–king game,’ and kind of motioned I’m not talking to you here, and Diggs walked away and Josh sat there,” Graham recalled. “… Whatever Stefon Diggs said to him, Josh Allen wasn’t having it.”
As the podcast continued, Graham noted how Diggs’ production dipped in the latter half of the season, comparing his stats in the first nine games, when the Bills went 5-4, to the second half at 7-3.
Graham also called attention to a previous report, in which Devin McCourty, a former Patriots safety, alleged the Bills’ offense “is trying to prove to Diggs that they don’t need him.”
As Diggs finished out the year with 107 receptions, 1,183 yards and eight touchdowns, he told reporters in February he was taking his future “day by day.”
The Bills officially dealt Diggs to the Texans this week, acquiring a 2025 second-rounder from Houston.
The Texans have since re-worked Diggs’ contract, getting rid of the final three years of the deal and permitting him to become a free agent after 2024.
He will be guaranteed $22.52 million this year, per ESPN.
