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.
