By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs is gone. On Wednesday he was tucked safely away on the Bills 52-man roster, number one on their wide receiver depth chart, but by late Thursday night he was missing. Gone like the flash.
What happened to Diggs though, as in his whereabouts, was no mystery. The culprits were easily identified as another contending AFC team down South.
The Houston Texans snuck in the back door to Bills Nation, took Diggs while most were napping, and if that was not enough, also managed to rummage through the drawers for a couple of late round draft picks.
Where was Bills Mafia when you needed them?!
Sure the Texans didn’t necessarily leave the cupboard completely bare, they left behind a second round pick in next years draft, but that’s like steeling your neighbors Ferrari and leaving your Honda Accord behind in it’s place. Sure you left your neighbor with something, but it doesn’t change the fact that you just committed a heist.
The Texans likely stole something else though. They could have stolen the Bills Super Bowl chances as part of their weekday caper.
I mean sure the Bills still have Josh Allen and there is a draft coming up at the end of this month that is sure to feature a nice crop of budding wide receivers. But it’s one thing to plant seeds for a budding harvest of tomorrow, it’s another to have benefits of that harvest right there on your table as you are set for a feast.
There is no doubt that the Texans won this trade. Heck it isn’t even worth assigning a victor. It’s quite simply this: the Texans are now better for having acquired one of the elite receivers in the game and the Bills are now worse off for having lost one of the elite receivers of the game.
Look it’s not just that the Bills made the decision that the time was now to depart with their best skill position player. Losing a great player is something that every NFL team knows is eventually going to happen. It’s the general lack of return that the Bills received that is alarming.
The Bills get back just one second round pick in next year’s draft (2025), and in order to finalize the trade the Bills had to send two additional draft picks to the Texans. That’s like running after the guy that just stole your wallet and screaming “hey you forgot my watch and my gold chain.”
It almost feels like the Bills had to beg the Texans to take Diggs. Trades are supposed to be beneficial to both teams. Although we like to assign a winner anytime a trade takes place, the idea is always both teams feeling that they got something good and valuable in return.
When the Kansas City Chiefs traded away their star wide receiver Tyreek Hill there were many of the same thoughts that the Chiefs were helping to make a contending AFC foe even stronger. But at least the Chiefs got back a decent haul for Hill, five draft picks, including the Dolphins first round pick in that year’s draft.
The Chiefs also had a future Hall of Fame tight end in Travis Kelce to soften the blow. Hill did go on to make a huge difference in Miami, helping lead the Dolphins to back-to-back playoff appearances. Meanwhile, the Chiefs just won their third Super Bowl in five seasons. So yeah it’s safe to say that the Chiefs don’t feel to bad about that trade anymore.
And who knows, maybe the Bills will nail their first round pick this season and that pick will go on to be a star in Buffalo. Maybe the Bills will also cleanup next year when they have an additional second round pick in their draft bank.
Diggs production did in fact decrease last season in Buffalo and he is 30 years old. That’s not to say Diggs production is about to fall off a cliff, but any dip in production from a skill position player in the elite realm is always at least a little worrisome.
The Bills could end up being better for making the move now, rather than waiting a couple more seasons only to see Diggs production falter and their ability to recoup draft capital in a trade sufficiently more difficult.
But for now the Texans have to be viewed, at least in my book, as the second best team in the AFC. In fact every team in the AFC should be worried by this trade. The Texans spent, what essentially amounts to a team taking a flyer on middling prospect, and got one of the best wide receivers in the game today. That doesn’t happen in the NFL. That’s not supposed to happen in the NFL, but it did.
