Buffalo recently signed general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott to matching contract extensions that will keep them with the team through 2027.
During their six seasons together, Buffalo is 62-35 and has made five playoff trips. Understand, the Bills missed the playoffs from 2000-2016.
Now that their contracts are set, Beane and McDermott can devote their full attention to solving the Stefon Diggs issue before training camp starts next month.
Rest assured, Diggs’ happiness is a huge issue.
He skipped the voluntary offseason camps and wasn’t happy when he arrived at the club’s mandatory minicamp earlier this month and left early on the first day.
On Saturday evening, he tweeted, “If you don’t feed your dogs they a put you on the menu…”
Perhaps, like every elite receiver, he wants the ball more. Stefon Diggs, who finished fifth in the league with 154 targets (12.8 per game), was reportedly upset he didn’t get the ball as much as he wanted in the second half of the Bills’ 27-10 home playoff loss to Cincinnati.
He was targeted a team-high 10 times but caught only four passes for 35 yards. He caught just one of five passes directed his way in the second half for eight yards. Whatever the issue, the Bills need to solve it ASAP because no player can rip apart a locker room or a team faster than an unhappy receiver.
How Stefon Diggs compares with other wide receivers
There’s a reason receivers are the only NFL position group classified as divas.
They can be narcissistic. And they can be selfish. They can get so consumed with their targets and statistics that nothing else matters. They can also be charismatic, which means it’s easy for them to find a group of teammates who support their desire to be the epicenter of every game plan and the recipient of every pass. They do it all in the name of winning, though their behavior
creates more problems than it solves.
We saw Keyshawn Johnson do it in New York, so the Jets traded him to Tampa Bay in 2000. Three years later, the Bucs deactivated him for conduct detrimental to the team for the final six games of the 2003 season.
The Eagles suspended Terrell Owens for the last eight games of the 2005 season for conduct detrimental to the team. We saw Antonio Brown do it in Pittsburgh in 2018 when he threw a pass at Ben Roethlisberger in practice and was ruled inactive for the season’s final game. He reportedly threw a football at Ben Roethlisberger during practice that week.
Pittsburgh traded him to Oakland for third-and fifth-round picks the following February.
The last time we saw Brown on an NFL field, he threw his jersey into the stands and removed his helmet, shoulder pads, and T-shirt before jogging into the locker room during the third quarter.
This is not the type of potential drama Buffalo needs as it heads into yet another season with championship aspirations.
They certainly don’t want Stefon Diggs to be a divisive force in the locker room, leading to constant conversation locally and nationally on sports talk radio. Then, everything from his body language to his comments will be examined under an electron microscope.
Pinpointing Stefon Diggs issues with Bills
If the issue were money, ownership could write a check and solve the problem. But the issue Stefon Diggs has with the team seems to go beyond cash.
Diggs is among the NFL’s best receivers by any metric you choose. He finished fourth in the NFL in receptions (108) and fifth in yards (1,429) while scoring 11 touchdowns.
The former fifth-round pick from Maryland arrived in Buffalo before the 2020 season, coinciding with Josh Allen’s emergence as a star. In the two years before the Bills traded for Diggs, Allen passed for 184.3 yards per game with 30 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
No one considered him one of the league’s rising stars. He was just a big, athletic quarterback filled with potential. Diggs unleashed that potential.
In the last three years, Allen has averaged 270.0 yards passing per game with 108 touchdowns and 39 interceptions. Buffalo recognized Diggs’ contribution to Allen’s success by signing him to a four-year, $104-million contract extension in April 2022.
“Stef, he’s my guy,” Allen told reporters at the Bills’ minicamp. “…I (expletive) love him. He’s a brother of mine. This does not work, what we’re doing here, without him. … I frigging love him. I can’t stress that enough.”
He must convince Stefon Diggs of that.
Jean-Jacques Taylor is an NFL Insider for Sportsnaut and the author of the upcoming book “Coach Prime“, with Deion Sanders. Follow him on Twitter.