Stefon Diggs stepped up in front of his locker and to a gaggle of lights and cameras awaiting his every word.
But there was something a bit different about this Diggs than the one that usually sat in front of a microphone in Orchard Park. In so many previous interviews as a member of the Bills, his voice echoed with confidence and authority, usually booming.
But after successfully claiming a 23-20 win in a game built up all around him, Diggs’ voice had a subtle quiver. The former Bills-turned-Texans receiver beamed from ear to ear and savored every second.
Diggs, like many of the Bills organization, spent all week saying it was just another game. At long last, it was time to reveal his truth.
“Honestly, it meant a lot to me,” Diggs finally admitted. “I held it in all week, energy-wise, try not to bring it up too much. Obviously, we had an interview earlier in the week. I just tried to keep it professional, but obviously, in the back of my mind, it meant a lot to me, and I wanted to do more showing than telling.”
The undoing of Diggs’ time in Buffalo is well-chronicled by now, but it remained a singular moment for both Diggs and the Bills franchise that became an ever-so-cliché fork in the road.
The Bills chose to trade him when they could have kept him for another go-round toward a Super Bowl. But they took an offer they liked and changed the trajectories of both parties. A fresh start was likely needed for each, but at the end of the day, it remained a choice to take away the very defining receiver of Josh Allen’s career to this point.
Diggs kept the truth serum flowing.
“I can’t say I didn’t think about this game when I got traded,” Diggs said. “I wondered if we played them, and then obviously it was on the schedule, but I take it one game at a time. And I knew when this game came about, I was just trying to take advantage and get a win for my team. But, obviously, it’s emotional.”
And it wasn’t as if Diggs was just a bystander to the matchup. The Texans receiver reeled in six catches for 82 yards, including two clutch third-down receptions that went for double-digit yardage, while the Bills couldn’t get out of their own way in the passing game.
The irony is as thick as a morning fog on a drive through the mountains.
Diggs had more receptions and yardage than the entire Bills receiving room. The Keon Coleman, Mack Hollins, Curtis Samuel, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Tyrell Shavers contingent had a measly four receptions for 76 yards.
“I’m not gonna sit here and act like it was just regular. It meant a lot to me,” Diggs said. “And it was reassuring that the guys around me knew that it meant a lot to me. Even if I didn’t say it, because I try to just keep it poised and treat every week like it’s the same. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t mean a lot to me.”
Diggs continuously complimented the Bills as a well-coached and good team with a great quarterback and stressed that they could see the Bills in the future. However, this chapter of the Bills’ story with their old receiver is over for now.
But for the Bills to get to that future showdown, they have some cleaning up on offense. The Bills went from the “everybody eats” mantra of the passing attack to whichever snarky pun you like best.
Even the Texans got in on the action.
EVERYBODY EATS 😤 pic.twitter.com/5Hepsi1otf
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) October 6, 2024
The Bills were, almost poetically, without Khalil Shakir, their top receiver. It left the Bills without a single player who caught a regular season pass from Allen in 2023. And that receiver room didn’t add much on Sunday, even with a depleted Bills defense giving them one chance after another to take hold of the game.
It wasn’t all the receivers’ fault, but they were a significant piece of the puzzle. Allen set a new career low in completion percentage in a single game. His 9-of-30 afternoon yielded a 30 percent completion rate. The only game in Allen’s career that came close was his NFL debut in mop-up duty for Nathan Peterman during a 47-3 loss to the Ravens in 2018, where he completed 40 percent.
The Bills had more incompletions, 21, than points scored. After the game, McDermott said his initial pre-film read on the passing struggles featured a bit too much downfield throwing.
But even the fact that throwing deeper down the field was a problem while employing a quarterback with a rifle for an arm leads to an entirely different conversation. And one the Bills successfully masked early on in the year.
As much as they wanted to believe and prove that the collective was greater than the sum of the individuals, that hope has become a gulf in their way of returning to one of the most dynamic offenses in the league.
Without Shakir, the downfield separation is non-existent among their top wideouts. They continue to give empty snaps and targets to players who wouldn’t get more than a handful of snaps in some other NFL cities.
It’s telling that, with Allen keeping a play alive and searching the entire field for someone to pop open, no one was even close. And Allen, as he’s prone to do in some moments, tried to force the issue across his body into multiple defenders and nearly got picked off.
On that very 3rd-and-10 play at the end of the first half, the Bills went into it with Hollins, Valdes-Scantling, Samuel and tight end Dawson Knox, who, between them, came into the contest with 17 catches and 150 yards in four games. For context, Shakir had 19 for 230 by himself.
Hollins’ massive role on the offense has become somewhat head-scratching. He came into Sunday leading the Bills in offensive snaps and extended that lead on everybody not named Keon Coleman. Hollins is a great blocker, though converting on only three receptions out of 12 targets the last two weeks is not good enough to warrant being immune to a role shift.
Samuel, even with Shakir cleared out Sunday to give him his most significant role of the season, managed exactly one catch without a single yard gained. Samuel has been a disappointment of a free-agent signing to this point.
Valdes-Scantling is getting snaps by default due to a room needing a spark, but has managed a reception on only 3.5 percent of his routes run this season.
Coleman has had some nice moments as a rookie and took advantage of a cornerback slip to convert a fourth down for a touchdown. That can’t be pushed aside. His ability to win in contested situations has become somewhat of a crutch for Allen when they need a spark.
But Coleman still struggles to separate consistently past the 10-yard mark. They need someone to add to him rather than to depend solely on him in dire moments.
Fourth down ➡️ TOUCHDOWN!
📺: @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/MwDCDzfUPS
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 6, 2024
Put it bluntly, they could have used somebody like Diggs in a massive AFC showdown. And from here until the trade deadline, and likely past that, it should remain a focus of general manager Brandon Beane and the Bills organization.
To be clear, there were plenty of other problems besides the receivers or passing game output that caused the Bills to lose to the Texans.
They need more from McDermott to strategize and execute end-of-game scenarios on the fly. Seeing offensive coordinator Joe Brady wilt with some over-thinking moments in a big game is also bothersome. Then there’s the defense, who put the offense on the back foot in the first quarter after allowing five straight plays of ten or more yards — two of which for touchdowns.
The Bills can toss plenty of blame around. But the Bills have one thing on their side that most other teams do not — an elite quarterback in Josh Allen.
That is the ultimate tool to overcome just about any piece of adversity in today’s NFL. However, Allen needs some more help around him. In the interim, he needs the team to isolate what’s working from a personnel perspective to give the Bills a fighting chance.
While it’s great in theory to have several receivers getting a bunch of snaps to keep everyone fresh, it’s coming at the cost of consistently having their best assets on the field. However, the bigger idea is that Allen and the Bills need a third receiver to help return them to the dynamic passing attack they used to be.
They have the quarterback, the running game, and, in most weeks, the best offensive line the Bills have had since Allen arrived in Buffalo. But somehow, with only a one-game advantage in the AFC East over the Jets and Dolphins, the Bills don’t have the time to let it figure itself out.
The Bills felt it was time to act to move Diggs this offseason, which, in the long run, is likely the right call. But all the same, with a flailing receiver room, it’s time for them to make tangible changes to the structure of their receiver room.
(Top photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
