FireChans

I mean, kinda? https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-vikings-unlikely-to-part-ways-with-stefon-diggs Reality vs Clickbait Media.

Did I manufacture that smoke? Yes or no?

You’re right Alpha. Not only am I impersonating @BarleyNY, I also impersonated an NFL reporter to spread this rumor.

Like the facts that I posted above about Diggs' tenure in Minnesota? That you tried to handwave away to suit your confirmation bias that the situations are completely different, but of course, you can't prove it. It's very funny about confirmation bias. Like confirming that the "smoke" around a trade is very valid when the trade would, in your opinion, benefit the Bills. So in 2020, when there were articles a flying about Diggs potentially being moved (articles that were hotly denied by their GM at the time and of course, Diggs said he wanted to be there two years prior), you were quite passionate that "there's plenty of smoke about a deal." But now, the same smoke flies around, and it's all..... my "trade Diggs agenda."

Reverse projection alert. Look in the mirror, my friend.

I think it's pretty likely Beane tested the waters and may not have gotten good enough returns to warrant moving off him. Similar to Elam last trade-deadline. I think its pretty obvious that Diggs is no longer an untouchable on this roster. There was a point where the market to trade him would start at 2 firsts. That day is long gone.

Show your work. Diggs cost them $9M in dead cap to trade in 2020. Theilen's cap hit was $12M that season.

The same question the Bills asked 4 years ago, and we’re fine with the answer.

Poyer will take a long angle because he a runs like a DT at this point, will get just close enough to watch Allen celebrate in the end zone.

It's the fans' fault. Obviously. As we all know, there was nothing to talk about in Minnesota. Listen to what Diggs had to say. https://www.skysports.com/nfl/news/12118/11456004/stefon-diggs-signs-new-five-year-81m-deal-with-minnesota-vikings "I love it here. I truly do, and I'm just happy I'll be here for a while now," Diggs said after practice Tuesday. "That's why I want to play for them for selecting me in the fifth round. It was a bumpy road that day, and I just remember getting a call, and they gave me a chance. "They believed in me, and they won, and going forward they pushed me to be where I am now." There's just no way they trade him two years later after that contract extension for say.... the 22nd pick in the 2020 NFL draft. Diggs said he loved it in Minnesota! It's crazy how fans make mountains out of molehills. Even the PellRaiser agrees: This is just Diggs being Diggs. He expressed some frustration with the offense and his role. He was good in the building when he got back and put up good numbers. Long-odds that Diggs gets traded, he's under contract for at least 3 more seasons. No way Minnesota trades him.

Poor Stef, the innocent victim of folks in the media having the gall to remember that he forced his way out of Minnesota 4 years ago.

@transplantbillsfan not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m going to create a character for you. His name is transplantravensfan. Here is his thoughts on the 2024 Ravens. ”I think it’s pretty clear that the Ravens are already better in 2024. QB - BETTER (Lamar gets another year with experience in Monken’s system. Safe to say this will only grow and help him perform even better than his MVP year. We also added Josh Johnson as backup who is Lamar Lite.) RB - BETTER (Henry is a star RB and Dobbins was always hurt. Gus was nothing special) WR - BETTER (Getting rid of Odell was addition by subtraction, he was clogging up targets for our younger guys. Zay Flowers had a great rookie year and is primed to be even better this year) OL - BETTER (Retaining all the same young guys who are only gonna keep building chemistry, and again, more experience in the Monken system) DL - BETTER (Locked up Madubuike who is a rising star on the DL and is only going to get better) LB - PUSH OR BETTER (Lost Patrick Queen, but we had already traded for Roquan who was a way better player because Queen wasn’t good enough, but we have Trent Simpson our ILB in waiting who was a third round pick who has a year of experience learning the system, I think he’s gonna rise to the occasion) DB - BETTER OR PUSH (Kyle Hamilton is a rising star and is only going to keep getting better. Rock Ya Sin is still a pending FA and I’m hoping we can bring him back on a cheap deal because he was decent last year, but even if we get a rookie or two, we have Humphrey as a vet to help lead them.) ST - SAME (We have the best kicker in the league and Harbaugh always has a pretty good to great ST unit) So there you have it. I think the Ravens are going to be better pretty much all around next year. We were already in the conference championship, which means next step is the Super Bowl!!!” Just to be clear, I don’t follow the Ravens that closely. It took me 5 minutes and their Spotrac page. Do you see how little analysis that actually is?

See, it’s not about being a homer. It’s about completely ignoring the rest of the NFL in the context of your evaluations. It’s just myopia. Is it reasonable to expect some improvement out of Torrence after his rookie season? Absolutely. Makes total sense. He had a very promising rookie season (even though he kinda hit a wall towards the end of the season), he started every game, that’s all wonderful. But every single team in the NFL has a rookie/young player they expect to be better than last year. Some of them will be. Some, inexplicably, won’t be. And that’s every rookie/young player at every position. So really, saying the OL will be “better” when we cut a pretty quality starting C, shuffled a good G to a position he never played serious snaps at the NFL level, and shuffled a backup LG on this team to start (who would’ve been starting at LG if he was better than McGovern) is based on…. Torrence getting better. But every team thinks their young DT’s will be better. So what are we talking about? Is it possible that both McGovern and Edwards reach new heights next year? Sure. Is it more possible that they are who they are? Absolutely. If there’s some compelling reasons outside of “our young players will only get better and build chemistry which is why the Bills will be better” that’s one thing. But when every single team can say the same thing, it’s kinda worthless.

I wish we would. Lock up our #1 and #2 WR’s for the future near entire prime of Josh’s career. Especially when a mid second round WR this draft would likely go much higher in future years.

And then we’re right back here again. Lol

A lot of those articles are not written by fans.

So what about my original statement was wrong? I’ll even bold the same part you did, just to be clear. Because you said all the off-season garbage was just in fans’ heads. Clearly, it’s not. So were you wrong?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bills-stefon-diggs-cryptic-message-has-nfl-world-buzzing/ar-BB1jYTsQ https://www.totalprosports.com/nfl/stefon-diggs-comments-pro-bowl-interview-buffalo-bills-josh-allen-future/ https://sports.yahoo.com/stefon-diggs-gives-long-interview-154510080.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALhwg4JqOHK4KAlg8dj-Xj5K3laoIAC8irifxf-DNwasEGZ2FKjDNfIwf8gs3Si7ZkIhH9enc5Llv2qdBjkpAulOn4fvT0rRvVGu8Pv1SbMFOyFnmSAG4WLbtUvOa7BNG5TLaSJbIAtWfYwTg71bcXJBK55wsRaMTRBYHZdOC11r https://www.thecoldwire.com/stefon-diggs-makes-cryptic-comments-about-future-in-buffalo/ https://www.si.com/nfl/bills/news/stefon-diggs-reveals-surprise-buffalo-bills-trade-rumors-dallas-cowboys https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-stefon-diggs-gives-another-indication-he-wants-out-of-buffalo-with-cryptic-post/ https://www.profootballnetwork.com/stefon-diggs-goes-viral-with-cryptic-post-that-spurs-trade-speculation-nfl-2024-trends/ Yup, clearly just in the Bills fans' heads. Lol.

Ahhh, we just want the fifth highest paid WR in the game to show up in the playoffs and not make vague and/or weird comments in the media that are going to pick up traction about an impending divorce. So entitled, unreasonable and delusional.

I do think Simmons is a fit and a good bandaid. I believe he has way more picks against Mahomes than any other active player. He plays against him twice a year ofc, but on some sorry Broncos teams.

If we sign Simmons for big money and go DE in the first, I’m starting the GoFundMe for the fire Beane billboard.

See above. He was really bad. Coverage stats are obviously tough to track because there's a lot of guesswork involved on who to blame and who was responsible. I usually just use them as an eyetest correlation. Hamlin looked like he was horrific in coverage. His numbers said he was horrific in coverage. It tracks. Micah and Poyer both had bad coverage grades this year. Micah was usually ~upper 70s/lowers 80s in passer rating since 2018. He was 100.7 this season, with his head falling off. Poyer's numbers are a little all over the map in his Bills career but the last two seasons his numbers 42.2 and 60 (All-Pro and ProBowl over those two seasons), but he posted his worst coverage passer rating last year of 101.5. That tracks as well. Both Poyer and Hyde were shells of their former selves last year, and they were still much better than Hamlin. Here's Damar taking a terrible angle, running into the back of Siran Neal, and letting JuJu twist out for a long touchdown. Taron and Neal also don't make the play, but the difference in catch+conversion vs walking in for a TD is all Damar. It's one play but the 2022 Bills defensive tape is littered with plays like this. He was really quite bad. Now, maybe Hamlin will improve and get coached up? I trust McD to wring out every bit of talent out of his DB's. But I'm not sure he would've made the team in 2023 if the tragedy didn't happen after what he did on the field in 2022. And for the record, they have hung onto guys that they liked with "potential" at S that never did anything, like Jaquan Johnson, who is now out of the league.

He was a complete and total scrub. He had a 142.3 passer rating allowed when thrown at. He was absolutely brutal in coverage and a huge chunk of big plays against the Bills that season were either whiffed tackles by him or just bad plays. We were top 7 in fewest 20+ yard plays allowed with the corpse of Poyer and Headless Hyde in coverage in 2023. Obviously missing a ton of other defensive players. We were 12th in 2022 (with one less game), and pretty much everyone was healthy in the regular season. Guy was a disaster. Wish he was a better player because he’s a good kid and has already had such tragedy.

Oh, he played with a rookie? Oh, he played against Baltimore? Those sound suspiciously like reasons why he wasn’t better than he was in Buffalo. Say it. U-N-C-L-E

I hope he plays again and at a high level.