Buffalo Bills Move on From Superstar, Ending Tumultuous Tenure with Team

The Stefon Diggs era has officially come to an end in Buffalo.

Diggs, who just completed his fourth year with the Bills and ninth in the National Football League, has been the subject of trade rumors for multiple seasons. The performance on the field has been relatively consistent throughout his tenure, as he recorded over 1,000 receiving yards in each of his four seasons in Buffalo.

Despite that, however, the relationship between Diggs, Josh Allen and the rest of the Buffalo Bills felt a bit off for a bit of time now.

All of that led to today, and this bombshell of a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter:

More on the deal for the Bills and Texans:

After 66 regular season games and nine playoff games over a span of four seasons, Stefon Diggs' time in Buffalo is done.

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For Diggs, it gives him another fresh start, which is something he's sought out in the past. After five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Diggs began to make cryptic posts on X, signaling that he may have been ready to leave.

Here's an example:

Diggs was then traded to Buffalo along with a 7th round pick, with Minnesota receiving 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th round draft picks in return for the star wideout. Ironically enough, the Vikings used that 1st round selection (22nd overall) to selection WR Justin Jefferson.

I don't know if you've heard, but he's pretty good at football.

READ MORE: Buffalo Bills’ QB Blown Away By Skill of These ‘Impressive’ Future NFL Stars

Regardless of that fact, Diggs performed extremely well at the beginning of his tenure in Buffalo. He recorded a league-leading 1,535 receiving yards in his first season with the Bills, and hauled in eight touchdowns, one shy of his career high.

Though Diggs would continue to perform well, he and his team were continuously marred by early playoff exits, and he seemingly began to grow tired of it. It was one of those playoff exits, which came at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals at Highmark Stadium, that led to this infamous moment:

You may believe differently, but for me, this was the moment that set this entire downfall into motion. The 2023 season was a tumultuous one for Diggs, who saw his production drop considerably after the Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and promoted Joe Brady on an interim basis.

As the season wore on, we started seeing tweets like these:

After the season was over, and Buffalo had been eliminated once again, Diggs began to tweet cryptic messages again, like this:

Even as recently as Wednesday, Diggs was still sharing cryptic information on social media:

Then, the trade became official, and in the blink of an eye, all of this tumult was in the rearview mirror.

For the Bills, this has been an offseason full of hard decisions. The decisions made by Brandon Beane and Co. should signal to fans that tougher times may be ahead in the short-term. By making this trade before June 1st, the Bills will incur a $31 million dead cap penalty, per NBC Sports.

So, the Bills lost another key player, and have to deal with a massive salary cap issue as a result of it. What could all of this mean for the 2024 Buffalo Bills?

To start, I can all but guarantee you that Buffalo will be drafting a wide receiver in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. That player will, ideally, make an immediate impact on the offense, which will help fill the void left by Diggs.

That said, with the salary cap issues facing the Bills in 2024, and the seeming lack of depth on the roster right now, this could be a sub-standard year for Buffalo, as they might look to "punt" on this year (by their standards) and re-load in 2025.