Bills face Stefon Diggs in first game since trade: “He could drain the energy from any room”

For the first time since the Buffalo Bills traded manipulative receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, their paths will cross Sunday at NRG Stadium.

Everyone says what they have to to put an end to the pre-game drama. Bills quarterback Josh Allen has gone out of his way to be respectful to him. Diggs emphasized it was nothing personal. The cornerbacks who will try to cover him shrug that it's just another play.

Even the audience seems less interested this week than some might have expected. When the NFL released the schedule five months ago, the knee-jerk criticism claimed that the Bills-Texans deserved prime-time treatment because of Diggs. Lo and behold, CBS Sports didn't even think the match was worthy of a 4 p.m. slot or its top broadcast team on Sunday afternoon.

The match feels less like a blockbuster and more like just one of 272 games in the regular season.

For Bills fans, Diggs may not even be the most intriguing and challenging receiver not on their team this week. They've turned their attention to frustrated Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams, who wants a new jersey. Bills Mafia should also be more worried about top wideout Khalil Shakir's injured right ankle than seeing Diggs once — as difficult as it can be to see an old flame for the first time.

Our conclusion should be this: The NFL cycle goes on and on, the storylines are so constant that almost everyone is over Diggs even before the showdown occurs. Yes, it would be annoying to see Diggs put up big numbers in a Texans win, but what difference will it really make?

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There is no point in pining in despair. The Bills needed to dump Diggs so badly that they were choking on $31 million in dead salary cap money. He wanted out. He was a problem. The divorce was necessary. No regrets.

So the Bills don't have a prototypical number 1 receiver again, which has happened frequently since Eric Molds was traded to the Texans in 2006. But as we see with Adams and Tyreek Hill and Amari Cooper and every top guy on a struggling team, they become available. That's how the Bills got Diggs in the first place. They have an owner and a general manager who are ready to make a big move if the salary cap allows it. Buffalo's front office also has a better understanding of asset allocation than it did when Doug Whaley went to crossroads for Sammy Watkins.

Diggs was special for Buffalo and earned his side in the who-made-who conversation about Allen and post-drought success. Diggs caught 445 passes for 5,372 yards and 37 touchdowns in four years. All stats rank fourth in team history, although it should be noted that Buffalo took significantly longer than most franchises to embrace the passing game as an NFL method, making it easier to climb the rankings. He would also rank fourth or fifth in those categories for the Carolina Panthers, founded 35 years after the Bills.

Diggs' contributions diminished significantly after Buffalo fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and promoted quarterbacks coach Joe Brady after a 5-5 start. From Weeks 11 to 18, when the Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins 7-2 to win the AFC East championship, Shakir, Gabriel Davis and even Trent Sherfield got more offensive snaps than Diggs in some weeks. Retired cornerback Josh Norman, then on the practice squad, told the Associated Press late in the season that Diggs opted out of games when the offense was on the field. NBC Sports analyst Devin McCourty suggested the Bills were intentionally trying to prove they didn't need Diggs.

With Brady calling the plays, Diggs' targets dropped to 8.3 per game, good for 15th in the league. After the catch, Diggs plummeted to 10.02 air yards per target (41st) and 3.7 yards per reception (103rd). He caught one touchdown (83 players caught more) and had 15 first downs (50 players caught more). There were no pass interference calls during this stretch. He dropped three passes and fumbled once. Diggs explained it wasn't his fault.

Bills fans won't soon forget Stefon Diggs' loss to Kansas City in the playoffs last season. (Jamie Germano/USA Today)

These were just regular season productions. He fumbled on the first snap against the Kansas City Chiefs and dropped a pass on the next play. Everyone remembers the hideous long-ball drop when Allen threw a perfect pass, and Diggs jogged back into the huddle with a grin and that mischievous thumb-forefinger gesture to let the world know how close the Bills were right now were set on clinching their postseason nemesis.

The price of passive aggression was no longer worth the effort. The Bills had enough of the sideline tirades, stormed out of the locker room, filled the social media posts, little brother and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, intimidating Buffalo and Allen unchecked, the petulance. I called it death by a thousand microaggressions.

“He could suck the energy out of any room,” one Bills player told me this offseason.

Bills Mafia began turning against Diggs when he dropped that pass against Kansas City, and their opinion of Diggs worsened when he questioned a fan's tweet that claimed “top receiver” wasn't responsible for Allen's success “significant”. “Are you sure?” Diggs looked back.

That's why there were no tears when the Bills sent Diggs, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick and 2025 fifth-round pick, to the Texans for a 2025 second-round draft pick.

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Many people who defended Diggs' behavior as an unrepentant competitive spirit felt like idiots. He had done with the Bills what he did with the Minnesota Vikings in 2020, manipulating his way to another roster when he didn't feel appropriately favored.

Down in Houston, they don't seem to care about Diggs' past. He is enjoying another honeymoon phase, being energetic, helpful and dynamic in four games. He has 25 catches for 233 yards and two touchdowns, ran twice for 12 yards and a touchdown and completed one pass for 13 yards. What fun!

I don't know what influence Diggs has on Houston coach DeMeco Ryans or offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, but I'm skeptical that Diggs has worked the penchant for harassing out of his system. Compared to his first former team, Diggs saw more targets than anyone else – a scenario that would benefit Buffalo if repeated on Sunday. Two weeks ago, Diggs caught 10 of his 12 targets for 94 yards. Houston's top receiver, Nico Collins, was limited (due to his higher standard) to six receptions on eight targets for 81 yards. Minnesota won 34-7.

Diggs is with Houston this year only. After the trade, he restructured his contract. Maybe it's better for both parties to enjoy the experience before wearing out his welcome. He turns 31 next month.

The Bills, meanwhile, have pushed a mixed-use, “everybody eats” philosophy that looked phenomenal two weeks ago against the Jacksonville Jaguars but turned into a disaster in Sunday night's ugly loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

The worst thing that can happen to Buffalo this weekend is falling behind to 3-2. The equation doesn't actually include Diggs' presence. Sure, he could rush for 160 yards and three touchdowns, and that might add to the appeal, but if the Bills actually lose, the more pressing concern will be avoiding three straight losses before facing the New York Jets on Monday night meadows.

All this diplomatic talk about how the Bills are focused on themselves and how this is just another game and Diggs is just another guy? They are appropriate and correct.

But no matter how poorly Buffalo performs or how fantastic Diggs looks on Sunday, there's no reason to miss him.

(Top photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)