Maiorana: It's time for Stefon Diggs to prove he's 'an all-in dude' for Buffalo Bills

Having spent all of Tuesday at One Bills Drive, I’m not ashamed to say that I still have no idea what is going on with wide receiver Stefon Diggs and all the needless drama he has created just before the Buffalo Bills go on summer vacation.

And I’m not the only one among the reporters who were out there who have not figured out what this guy is so mad about that it made him stay away from the team throughout the entire offseason program, and now the first day of its mandatory mini camp.

I also don’t understand why coach Sean McDermott would stir the embers with a comment that, in hindsight, did not portray him in a good light.

Here’s the timeline: At 11:45 a.m., McDermott sat down with reporters and the first question, of course, was whether Diggs was at the facility. “Stef is not here,” McDermott said. “Everybody else is here at the current time.”

That came as quite a surprise because I think everyone assumed Diggs would be there. McDermott was then asked how he felt about that and he replied, “I’m very concerned, very concerned. I’m not going to get into it and listen, I respect everyone’s questions and what they want to know about our team right now, just not going to get into that anymore.”

Agent says Stefon Diggs was at the facility, just not at practice

When McDermott says something like that, no matter how many times reporters try to get something out of him, he’s not budging, so we all moved on. But then, about a half hour later when the team hit the field for practice, things kind of went off the rails.

Seeing what McDermott said, Diggs’ agent, Adisa Bakari, made sure it was known that his client was indeed at the facility on Monday and then again Tuesday, but he left before the practice.

If the coach was just being literal because, in fact, Diggs was not there at the moment he was speaking to reporters, OK. But it rankles me why he didn’t just add that Diggs had been there, but he wasn’t going to practice. That was a key distinction and by not divulging that piece of information, the natural assumption was that Diggs didn’t even come to Buffalo and was blowing off the mini camp, and that would have been pretty big news.

Once Bakari’s tweet was out there, then the national media pounced from afar and it became the story of the day in the NFL when it really didn’t need to be.

What Josh Allen has to say about Stefon Diggs

Following practice, quarterback Josh Allen wound up being the face of the issue for the Bills. I guess that comes with the territory of being the highest-paid athlete in Buffalo sports history.

He was grilled for 11 minutes with every question pertaining to Diggs, but Allen’s answers were mostly generalities, so we still don’t really understand why Diggs has taken the stance he has.

“I know internally we’re working on some things,” said Allen, who spoke to Diggs face to face before practice but wouldn’t reveal the specifics of their conversation. “Stef, he’s my guy. I love him, he’s a brother of mine. This does not work, what we’re doing here, without him. We wish he was in here today and was out there on the field with us and that’s not the case, but I’ve got his back no matter what. We don’t want this to be a distraction, he doesn’t want this to be a distraction. It is what it is.”

Well, sorry, but it’s too late for that. It is a distraction if Allen is sitting in a press conference answering repeated questions about it.

Allen professed his love for Diggs several times, said that he has his back, that he’s a great guy and everyone in the locker room loves him, that “once he’s in he’s an all-in dude” but Allen didn’t solve the mystery of Diggs’ months-long absence.

He was asked point blank if this is a personality clash between he and Diggs.

“No, I don’t think so,” he answered.

Why is Stefon Diggs' frustrated?

Impossible as it it should be, is Diggs not satisfied with his role in the offense?

“He’s a special player and he makes our team better,” Allen said. “There’s certain things we can do to help that out and figure out different ways, whether it’s getting him the ball or getting him more involved in the game plan. I think that there are some things that could have gone better last year and didn’t and just, you know, I think as an organization, maybe not communicating the right way with everything.”

Blank faces stared back at Allen after that answer.

Did this all stem from the loss to the Bengals and Diggs’ obvious aggravation that day, not to mention his immature bolting from the locker room?

“I can’t speak for him on that,” Allen said. “Whether it does or doesn’t, I think, is besides the fact but again, I’m up here, I love him. I just want him to know I’ve got his back and I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure that we can get him back because we are a much, much better team with him on the field.”

If this is truly just Diggs being upset about his role in the offense, that would be absolute nonsense, the ultimate diva play.

He has been one of the most targeted (584), most productive (338 catches for 4,189 yards and 29 TDs), and certainly most highly-compensated receivers in the league (his newest deal guarantees him $70 million) during his three years with the Bills. Oh, and he gets to play with one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

Asked if Diggs’ frustrations, given the superstar numbers he has accrued, make sense to him, Allen said, “Again, whether it makes sense to anybody on the outside or not, that’s how he feels. I mean, you can’t take that lightly. If someone feels a certain way, you can’t just bubble over it. You’ve got to hear what they’re saying, try to understand it and try to work on it.”

Ah, so now we’re getting somewhere. That response certainly seemed to reveal the root of the problem, that Diggs wants the ball more.

But then came this. “I mean, I think it has more to do than just football, is what I’m basically saying,” Allen said, bringing us all back to square one. “There’s the football piece, one, and then stuff that happens due to football. And I’ll just kind of keep it that.”

In the end, one thing that Allen said was dead on correct. In the middle of June, as dumb as it all seems, this isn’t a major problem. Training camp is still six weeks away, and the season opener is three months away.

“We’re not playing a game tomorrow, this is mini camp, this has no impact on what we’re going to be and how we’re going to be going forward as a team,” Allen said. “We got a lot of time left and I’m sure there’s a few guys around the league that aren’t in mandatory mini camp right now. So we’re not looking at it as anything other than that.”

Perhaps all the drama will end Wednesday if Diggs shows up and practices. After all, when he was asked if he thinks Diggs wants to be here, Allen said, “Yes.”

OK, well, I say prove it because there’s no excuses now. The voluntary OTA sessions are done and I was on record as saying I really didn’t have a problem with Diggs skipping those. But this mini camp is mandatory, and since he’s already in town, how about showing up for work - a job Diggs is being paid more than $24 million this season for - and prove to Allen and his teammates that he really is “an all-in dude.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Stefon Diggs needs to prove he's 'all-in dude' for Bills: Maiorana