Stefon Diggs repeating behaviors in Buffalo that preceded trade from Vikings
Stefon Diggs was a no-show for the first day of mandatory minicamp with the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday and head coach Sean McDermott said he's "very concerned" about the developing situation.
"Very concerned. Very concerned," McDermott repeated. "Right now, I'm not going to get into that any more."
After the Bills were knocked out of the playoffs in January by the Bengals, Diggs allegedly cleaned out his locker before coaches got into the locker room after the final whistle and then stormed out of the stadium. Diggs was also seen yelling at Bills quarterback Josh Allen during the second half of that game.
"Want me to be okay with losing?" Diggs wrote in a series of tweets after the loss. "Nah. Want me to be okay with our level of play when it's not up to the standard? Nah. It's easy to criticize my reaction more than the result."
What's unfolded since has been nothing short of history repeating itself.
Diggs allegedly unfollowed the Bills on Instagram in April, which followed numerous mysterious tweets that have left people wondering what the 29-year-old's intentions were. That'll sound very familiar to Vikings fans.
Before the Vikings traded Diggs to the Bills in early 2020, Diggs had created an unsettling situation by posting countless mysterious tweets and even going as far as to deny asking for a trade only to then say "there's truth to all rumors."
Among his cryptic tweets was one on Feb. 9, 2020 that said: "Business is business..."
History repeated itself on March 8, 2023: "it's just business... don't take it personal," Diggs tweeted.
It’s just business… don’t take it personal
— DIGGS (@stefondiggs) March 8, 2023
Why would Diggs skip minicamp now? Is it contract related? Probably not considering his average annual salary of $24 million makes him tied with DK Metcalf as the fifth highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL.
Trading Diggs would be very difficult for the Bills because, as NFL Network's Tom Pelissero points out, Diggs's contract carries a significant cap hit. According to OverTheCap, his 2023 cap his is just over $13 million and the Bills currently are only $5.5 million under the cap.
#Bills WR Stefon Diggs, who is absent from mandatory minicamp today, is making $24.415 million in 2023, including a $22.745M signing bonus as part of a March restructure. A mountain of dead cap means his contract isn't really tradeable from Buffalo's end. An unusual situation.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 13, 2023
Is Diggs done in Buffalo? If history is a sign of things to come, it's not good news for the Bills. Well, unless they trade Diggs and land a Justin Jefferson like the Vikings did with the first-round pick they got in the trade.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.