Why the Bills-Texans trade for Stefon Diggs came together
Yahoo Sports senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein details how Buffalo's decision to trade the star receiver - and why it made sense for Houston - came down to both teams' push to contend as soon as possible.
Video Transcript
JORI EPSTEIN: When the Stefon Diggs trade rippled across the NFL, I asked scout coach and front office sources, What are the Buffalo Bills doing here and how did the Houston Texans pull this off? The answer to these two questions ironically is not that different. It all comes down to the process.
Is Stefon Diggs a clear wide receiver one? He is. In a vacuum, are offenses better with him? They are. But NFL teams aren't built in a vacuum.
They also don't live on one-year timelines. So after Diggs' Bills production slipped last year and the Texans had much more cap space for him, we see the Stefon Diggs trade. The Bills are not in full rebuild mode.
When Josh Allen is your quarterback, your window is always open. But one AFC executive told me that the Bills are trying not to make a three-year project into a five-year one. If the Bills reset a little bit in 2024, they can better maximize the Allen window that should still have 5 to 10 good seasons.
Houston, on the other hand, has the best life hack in the NFL, a great quarterback on a rookie contract. Paying well below market rate at the most expensive position on the roster allows you to pay a receiver what the Texans are about to pay Stefon Diggs. If they win, as their talent is set up to, executives are pretty optimistic that Stef can channel his competitiveness productively. Whether there are enough targets to go around is another question, but that's a good problem to have if you are a Houston fan.
And if you're a Bills fan, take solace knowing that your team has a plan. I believe Buffalo does. Now, let's see how they execute it.
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