NFL insider Peter King of NBC Sports believes Buffalo Bills star wide receiver Stefon Diggs could be the subject of controversial headlines for a second straight offseason.
In Monday’s “Football Morning in America” column, King wrote that Bills general manager Brandon Beane will likely “want to do major surgery on Diggs’ deal.” King added that he expects Diggs will “not be happy about” such a development.
“Diggs is 30,” King explained. “He’s due for a cap number of $27.9M next year, which, for a player who didn’t have a 100-yard receiving day in the Bills’ last 13 games, is quite excessive.”
Diggs famously didn’t hide his frustrations during a playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in January 2023 and, per reports, may or may not have wanted a bigger say in offensive game-planning last offseason.
According to ESPN stats, Diggs finished this past regular season ranked seventh in the NFL with 107 receptions, tied for sixth with 160 targets and 13th with 1,183 receiving yards. While he tallied eight touchdown catches, he failed to record a single score after Week 12.
Diggs signed a four-year contract extension with the Bills in April 2022 that reportedly could be worth up to $96M. Last week, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted that Diggs’ 2024 base salary of $18.5M becomes fully guaranteed on March 17.
Beane insisted while speaking with reporters after Buffalo’s divisional-round playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that he still “firmly” believes Diggs is a No. 1 wide receiver for an advertised championship contender even though the veteran committed a costly fourth-quarter drop versus the Chiefs.
History suggests Diggs will let the world know if he’s unhappy over any request sent his way by Beane before March 17, but the truth of the matter is that Diggs and the Bills may need each other for at least one more season as the club tries to get back to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since January 2021.