Diggs' Drama

[3rdand12]

Draco you Devil  lol !

[The Jokeman]

3 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

Perspective is sustained performance in the postseason, in high leverage situations, and being multiple enough on offense to win different ways. Who cares if we have an elite offense under situations when we can play ahead or control the ball or it is elite in the aggregate but fails when faced with less than ideal circumstances. All of these things will inevitably occur in the postseason. It goes back to building teams to win regular season games offensively and not postseason games.

 

The Jets don't even have a starting caliber NFL QB. I'm not sure where the Jets fit in any conversation offensively, but they don't fit where you're trying to put them.  

The Jets ran my thought process as couldn't think of another top end WR that got injured recently. I suppose Nico Collins might be another example.

[HappyDays]

2 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

The Jets ran my thought process as couldn't think of another top end WR that got injured recently. I suppose Nico Collins might be another example.

 

So your opinion is that superstar players are a waste of money because if they get injured you're screwed?

[Old Coot]

The difficulty is that at today's salaries if you sign too many elete players, there is only chump change left so you wind up having a bunch of scrubs on the field with your elites.

 

This is why teams shoot for the moon while their core of elites are on team-friendly rookie contracts; see for example the Rams and Lions.

[MiracleAtRich1393]

12 minutes ago, Old Coot said:

The difficulty is that at today's salaries if you sign too many elete players, there is only chump change left so you wind up having a bunch of scrubs on the field with your elites.

 

This is why teams shoot for the moon while their core of elites are on team-friendly rookie contracts; see for example the Rams and Lions.

That requires drafting high end talent tho 😭

[steven50]

On 11/13/2025 at 10:59 AM, BullBuchanan said:

Most people here had very few nice things to say about Diggs when he left, despite him being the most productive Bills receiver in history over his tenure. 

 

Andree Reed was the most productive Bills receiver in history not Diggs. Diggs ranks around 5th

[Saint Doug]

Maybe Diggs was right? Maybe he stepped out at the right time? He certainly knows the innner workings of the Bills better than all of us.  

[LEBills]

27 minutes ago, steven50 said:

 

Andree Reed was the most productive Bills receiver in history not Diggs. Diggs ranks around 5th

Diggs averaged 81 yards per game to Reeds 59. They have the same amount of 1000 yard seasons though Reed played with the Bills for 11 more seasons than Diggs. Different eras is part of it, but Diggs is the most productive.

[Dafan]

13 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

This graphic should be another reason Brady does not return as OC next year.

 

Patriots receivers aren’t that much better than the Bills. Yet, I saw guys schemed open all night vs Jets. So, yes the receivers are not good. But neither is Brady. 

Sorry, but Mack was huge for us last year.  And he has been reliable for Maye.  He's roughly 70 yards and 1 Td under our leading wr Shakir.  And that is on Hollins 38 targets compared to Shakirs 58. Mack is the one WR I really wanted to bills to keep from last year.

[Ray Stonada]

2 hours ago, Dafan said:

Sorry, but Mack was huge for us last year.  And he has been reliable for Maye.  He's roughly 70 yards and 1 Td under our leading wr Shakir.  And that is on Hollins 38 targets compared to Shakirs 58. Mack is the one WR I really wanted to bills to keep from last year.

 

And best of all, Mack made every tough catch in the biggest moments. Beautiful TD catch in our biggest game of the last four seasons, the AFC championship. He was *clutch*. Josh trusted him, you could see that by late in the season. A great blocker, since the Bills insist so much on WR blocking. 

 

How in the world did we not retain this guy? Oh yeah: Samuel, Moore, Palmer, etc etc.

[Sierra Foothills]

23 hours ago, LEBills said:

The Bills and Green Bay are not even comparable when it comes to value.

 

Beane has the worst WR strategy in the NFL as he mostly fills the room with free agents in one of the top 3 most expensive positions in football. We have one WR we drafted in 2024 and one we drafted in 2022 on the roster lol. The other three are mid level free agents (making like $20 million combined this year lol) and a UDFA. 
 

If you look at our perennial competition the Chiefs and Ravens, they are down near Green Bay because they have drafted receivers recently. You can do everybody eats, but you have to draft WRs and eventually hit on one. You can’t do everyone eats and try to fill the room with other teams free agent cast offs. 
 

For the entire time we had Diggs, we never drafted another WR before the 4th round. So our passing game became more and more Diggs-centric as Smoke and Bease gave way to McKenzie, Crowder, Harty and Sheffield. So that when Diggs forced his way out, our WR production basically dropped to nothing. Aside from drafting Keon, the urgency to fix that has not been there and is the #1 reason I hope Beane is gone sooner than later.

 

 

1. CIN - $55.01M

2. TB - $47.9M

3. TEN - $45.5M

4. MIA - $43.3M

5. WAS - $42.0M

6. CHI - $38.7M

7. IND - $37.0M

8. ATL - $36.0M

9. DET - $33.5M

10. DAL - $33.3M

11. PHI - $31.5M

12. DEN - $30.5M

13. LAR - $28.9M

14. MIN - $27.7M

15. NE - $27.6M

16. HOU - $27.1M

17. LV - $26.9M

18. BUF - $26.6M

19. SF - $25.9M

20. CAR - $25.7M

21. PIT - $24.3M

22. SEA - $24.2M

23. JAX - $23.6M

24. NYG - $23.3M

25. ARI - $22.7M

26. NYJ - $21.1M

27. NO - $20.5M

28. KC - $19.8M

29. BAL - $18.1M

30. GB - $17.6M

31. CLE - $17.1M

32. LAC - $17.0M
 

13 hours ago, mjt328 said:

I think Joe Brady's offense (along with another divisional round loss) were the final straws for Stefon Diggs.  Yes, his antics were getting worse each season.  But that seemed to be the point when he was officially done as a Buffalo Bill.

 

After watching Brady's system for the last 2 years, I'm convinced that he mostly wants to use the team's #1 WR as a decoy.  The main purpose is to draw away coverage and clear space for the safer underneath stuff.  

• When Brady took over as OC in 2023, Diggs production (targets, catches, yards, etc.) immediately went down... and Khalil Shakir's production immediately went up.  The assumption was that maybe Diggs was secretly injured, on the downside of his career or even dogging it.  But this year in New England is proving that wasn't the case at all.  Diggs is still a superstar in this league.  So what happened the final two months of that season? 

• Without Diggs, the Bills passing offense started slow in 2024.  Fans seem to forget this, because the offense finished at the top of the NFL.  But in reality, the pass game was meh in Weeks 1-2 and then fell apart in Weeks 4-5 (where everybody was complaining our outside WRs couldn't get open).  So Beane pulled off the trade for Amari Cooper.

• The passing game turned around almost immediately after acquiring Cooper, even though his stats were almost non-existent.  That's because defenses had to respect his route-running ability, making him an effective decoy for Brady's short attack.

• In the offseason, Cooper was considered an after-thought.  After all the guy only had 20 catches and under 300 yards for the Bills.  Many even believed that Josh Palmer (a career #3 for the Chargers) was going to be an upgrade.  But nobody realized Cooper was really the lynchpin in our passing attack.  Because he was the only outside WR on our roster that teams respected.  

 

"Everybody Eats" is a good idea in principle.  But it's very difficult to execute properly.

 

It's good to spread the ball around to many different options.  It's good that a QB isn't pressured to force-feed his top WR.  It's good that defenses can't focus on stopping a single weapon.  It's good not to have a distraction-causing diva in the locker room.

 

But there are times when you need that top WR who can win 1-on-1 and get open.  If you don't have that guy, defenses know they can dedicate less resources towards stopping the outside guys.  That spirals down to the rest of the offense. 

 

And you will also have a really tough time keeping a #1 WR happy when your plan is making him a decoy.

 

 

Good post but Diggs is not still a superstar in this league.

 

13 hours ago, Sojourner said:

I was a bit indifferent with Diggs being shipped off. It had obviously become a team problem and the dude rarely showed up in the playoffs. Once or twice? Sure. But your #1 guy who dominated the regular season has to make some of the catches he was missing. Can’t fire someone on that basis. 
 

Now if he ends up producing these playoffs for New England??? Yeah, it’ll be a bummer. 

 

Except for a few posters here, it's not talked about much but it bears mention again... the ability of this team to manage personalities.

 

When it comes to high maintenance players who cause distractions and drama, it's said that a star player will be tolerated while a roster filler will be cut. As some here like to say, the juice has to be worth the squeeze but on every NFL team there's an aspect of tolerating talented headaches in the name of keeping that talent rostered.

 

Without really knowing, my gut feeling is that the leadership on the Bills, whether GM, Head Coach, player or non-player simply isn't strong enough to manage personalities like Diggs.

 

When you watch some Head Coaches, you can see how respected they are, how secure they are, and how their leadership translates into players falling in line for them when one player steps out of line. Again I could be wrong but I don't get that from the Bills.

 

[H2o]

Given his age, and his type of injury, the fact Diggs came back so quickly to play at the level he is right now is pretty remarkable. He's been a full go since TC, and that was just 10 months removed his ACL tear. He is the leading receiver for NE and is on pace for another 1,000 yard season. Good for him. 

 

Yes, his time was done here. He had become as much a detriment to the locker room as he was prior to being jettisoned by Minnesota. The difference is Minnesota was able to flip our pick into Justin Jefferson. Our pick ended up becoming another defensive lineman. 

[Billsatlastin2018]

Diggs always looks open and is now #12 in the NFL with 59 Receptions and 659 yards. Again, the top rated Bill is Shakir at #41. The Patriots have 2 more WRs just behind Diggs. Hollins is one of them.

 

Thanks Beanbrain.

[The Jokeman]

10 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

So your opinion is that superstar players are a waste of money because if they get injured you're screwed?

Dependent on what you build around them. 

[Buffalo ill]

8 hours ago, LEBills said:

Diggs averaged 81 yards per game to Reeds 59. They have the same amount of 1000 yard seasons though Reed played with the Bills for 11 more seasons than Diggs. Different eras is part of it, but Diggs is the most productive.

Different era is all of it.  When Andre played WRs straight up got murdered over the middle.  Now days players would get suspended for the routine tackles of the olden days.

[LEBills]

21 minutes ago, Buffalo ill said:

Different era is all of it.  When Andre played WRs straight up got murdered over the middle.  Now days players would get suspended for the routine tackles of the olden days.

While that is true, even if you look at percentage of passing yards. Reed had 29.18% of Kelly’s receiving yards from 1986-96 (Kelly played one more game than Reed did in that time). Diggs had 30.63% of Allens passing yards from 2020-23. Reed was great, I think Diggs was just a bit better.

[QCity]

37 minutes ago, LEBills said:

While that is true, even if you look at percentage of passing yards. Reed had 29.18% of Kelly’s receiving yards from 1986-96 (Kelly played one more game than Reed did in that time). Diggs had 30.63% of Allens passing yards from 2020-23. Reed was great, I think Diggs was just a bit better.

 

You give prime Andre Reed a QB like Josh with today's modern rules that favor WR's and he would put up 2021 Cooper Kupp numbers that flirt with 2,000 yards.

[LEBills]

8 minutes ago, QCity said:

 

You give prime Andre Reed a QB like Josh with today's modern rules that favor WR's and he would put up 2021 Cooper Kupp numbers that flirt with 2,000 yards.

ok haha

[CincyBillsFan]

50 minutes ago, LEBills said:

While that is true, even if you look at percentage of passing yards. Reed had 29.18% of Kelly’s receiving yards from 1986-96 (Kelly played one more game than Reed did in that time). Diggs had 30.63% of Allens passing yards from 2020-23. Reed was great, I think Diggs was just a bit better.

Kelly also had better alternate places to throw the ball in HOFers Loften & Thomas (as good as CMAC as a pass catching RB) then Allen has had.  

[LEBills]

Just now, CincyBillsFan said:

Kelly also had better alternate places to throw the ball in HOFers Loften & Thomas (as good as CMAC as a pass catching RB) then Allen has had.  

yes he did, but when just saying who was the more productive WR, Diggs is more productive. Sure there may be reasons for it but the stats are what they are. No slight on the 90s teams. We will look back on the Diggs era fondly in 30 years too.