BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Bills receiver Stefon Diggs shot down a report from an ESPN commentator who said on air Monday that Diggs “wants out” of Buffalo.
“100% not true,” Diggs posted on social media. “I don’t know who the source 😒 is but I thought i nip this s*** in the bud already.”
In a follow-up post, Diggs added: “Rocking wit my dawgs… Bills mafia ❤️💙 through and through!!!”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was discussing the Bills and the Jets when he launched into an aside about Diggs:
“Brother wants out, by the way. I’m just telling you what I know, I got my own sources,” Smith said. “Brother wants out. He don’t want to be in Buffalo no more. I’m telling you right now, I have my sources. Stefon Diggs got to be there, but he would prefer to be gone because he’s lost a level of belief in the Buffalo Bills. That’s right, I said it. It’s Stephen A., baby. I’m telling you what I know. They could deny, they could tell you … I have my sources. I’m telling you what I know, all right. But he’s not going to force his way out. He knows he’s got to be there and they got to perform. But he ain’t feeling the Buffalo Bills the way that he once did because he feels there’s a window of opportunity that they may have missed out on.”
Diggs did miss a day of mandatory practice this offseason after skipping all of the voluntary sessions, which led coach Sean McDermott to say he was “very concerned” with the situation — promptly igniting the rumor mill. McDermott walked back his comments the following day, saying Diggs had been excused.
“We got to a point yesterday where we just felt like we all needed a break and some space,” McDermott said in June, referencing a conversation with Diggs. “So I gave Stef permission to get some space and head out, and then [we] picked up those conversations after practice.”
Von Miller insisted the situation was “really not that serious.” Josh Allen said, “Internally, we’re working on some things, not football-related.”
Diggs is set to be one of the highest-paid wide receivers in football this season. If the Bills were to trade him, it would result in a substantial salary cap charge next season — more than $30 million in dead cap space, according to contract website Spotrac. That number is not unprecedented for teams to take on when moving on from top quarterbacks, but would be among the highest dead cap figures ever for a non-quarterback and would seriously hamstring the Bills next season.
Diggs told Sports Illustrated last July, “I want to finish [my career] with the Bills.”