Receiver Stefon Diggs has been traded by two teams. Both transactions came with a vague sense that Diggs was part of the problem.
In Houston, they view him only as part of the solution.
On Saturday, offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was asked for his assessment of Diggs.
“I just love his personality,” Slowik said. “He’s extremely competitive, he’s got energy, he’s got juice. I’d never been around him prior to this and I think I speak for the entire offseason and the entire team that he just — he’s fun to be around. But at the same time, he wants to be the best he can possibly be. He wants to be coached. He wants to help teach young guys. He wants to be a leader. He also wants other guys in the room, when they have something for him, to coach him and to teach him and get something from Nico [Collins], get something from Tank [Dell], embrace — he’s one of us. That’s the number one thing that jumps out to me is he’s one of us. He’s a competitor, he loves football and he’s been a great dude.”
Diggs has always had a high standard for himself. He does everything in his power to win. And he expects others to have a high standard, too. When they don’t, he eventually gets frustrated. In time, that frustration comes out.
Regardless, there’s positivity for now between the Texans and Diggs. There’s no reason for anyone to be upset or frustrated. And if the Texans can pick up where they left off a year ago, there might not be any reason to be upset or frustrated, for a while.
The Bills have won four straight AFC East titles, but the team that will be on the field at training camp next week looks a lot different than the ones that celebrated those crowns.
Mainstays of the team like Stefon Diggs, Mitch Morse, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Gabe Davis, and Micah Hyde are no longer on the roster and it remains to be seen how the new pieces fit together in Buffalo. During an appearance on NFL Network, left tackle Dion Dawkins acknowledged things will be “different” and said he likes feeling like the team is being overlooked heading into the season.
“Everybody’s counting us out, which I’m cool with,” Dawkins said. “We could fly underneath that radar and hit everybody with uppercuts. So I’m perfectly fine with it.”
Oddsmakers still have the Bills pegged as the favorites to win the AFC East, so it’s hard to seriously make the case that everyone is counting a Bills team with Josh Allen at quarterback out as we head into the 2024 season. Such things rarely play a role in players deciding to play the “nobody believes in us” card and the Bills will happily take any motivation that helps them remain on top of the division for another year.
The Texans acquired veteran receiver Stefon Diggs in a high-profile offseason trade to help boost the club’s receiving corps.
On the first day of training camp, quarterback C.J. Stroud said he’s enjoying having Diggs around.
Stroud got together with other offensive skill players away from the facility during the summer and said the thing he’s picked up so far about Diggs is just how hard he works.
“He’s somebody who loves the game and doesn’t cheat it, and that’s why he’s been successful, and I think he’ll continue that success,” Stroud said in his Thursday press conference. “I’m blessed enough to, hopefully, be a part of that. That’s some things that just stuck out to me. Just how personable he is, how relatable he is.
“He’s really friendly and very vocal, so it’s really nice to have him around.”
Diggs 30, is coming off his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl season and his sixth straight year with at least 1,000 yards. But 2023 was also his least productive year with Buffalo, as he caught 107 passes for 1,183 yards with eight touchdowns and did not have a game with at least 100 yards after Week 6.
He caught seven passes for 52 yards and three passes for 21 yards in Buffalo’s two playoff games against Pittsburgh and Kansas City, respectively.
With the Texans having several effective weapons in the pass game, we’ll see what Diggs’ productivity looks like for the club during the regular season.
The Texans have added another wide receiver to their 90-man roster.
SportsTrust Advisors announced that their client Quintez Cephus has signed with the Texans. No terms of the deal were included in the announcement.
Cephus played three years for the Lions after being drafted in the fifth round in 2020, but they released him last year after he was suspended indefinitely for a gambling policy violation. He signed with the Bills after being reinstated this spring and was released in mid-May.
Injuries limited Cephus to 22 games for Detroit before his suspension and he caught 37 passes for 568 yards and four touchdowns in those appearances.
When Joe Brady was Curis Samuel’s offensive coordinator with the Panthers in 2020, the receiver had the most productive year of his career.
It was the only time Samuel has accounted for over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in a season, as he caught 77 passes for 851 yards with three touchdowns and rushed 41 times for 200 yards with two TDs.
Now Brady is once again Samuel’s offensive coordinator, this time with Buffalo as Samuel joined the club on a three-year deal in March.
So what is Brady looking to get out of Samuel as the pair has reunited in 2024?
“Hopefully, a little bit of everything,” Brady said in a recent appearance on the Centered on Buffalo podcast with former Bills center Eric Wood. “I’m so excited to get Curtis back. I only had him for one year and he kind of just did this [went on an upward trajectory] the entire year. The one year that I had him, it was COVID year, so I didn’t really get to do much with him in the offseason — didn’t get anything, met him for the first time in training camp. And so, just kind of get a feel of what he can do. And we just basically played him at wide receiver to start, gave him some carries at running back, and then Week 2 of my first year, Christian McCaffrey got hurt. And then it was just like, OK, we had good running backs on the roster but it was like, alright, how can I get this guy involved? And man, he just took it and ran with it.
“He’s an incredible blocker, can play on the outside, play on the inside, move him around, as fast as can be. Just get the ball in his hands and good things happen — whether he’s playing receiver or whether he’s playing running back, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just his versatility will be an asset to the offense.”
Samuel, a second-round pick in the 2017 draft, has averaged 63 catches for 635 yards over the last two seasons with Washington. In all, he’s caught 317 passes for 3,383 yards with 22 touchdowns and rushed for 715 yards with seven TDs in 91 games.