Houston Texans are taking on a calculated, yet serious risk by trading for Stefon Diggs
If the last few weeks didn't paint the portrait of the Houston Texans' all-in mentality, Wednesday's move to acquire Stefon Diggs from the Buffalo Bills certainly did. The Texans sent the Bills a 2025 second-rounder in return for Diggs, a 2024 sixth-rounder, and a 2025 fifth-rounder. Now, C.J. Stroud has an elite quartet of pass catchers […]
If the last few weeks didn't paint the portrait of the Houston Texans' all-in mentality, Wednesday's move to acquire Stefon Diggs from the Buffalo Bills certainly did.
The Texans sent the Bills a 2025 second-rounder in return for Diggs, a 2024 sixth-rounder, and a 2025 fifth-rounder. Now, C.J. Stroud has an elite quartet of pass catchers in Nico Collins, Tank Dell, Dalton Schultz, and Diggs. That doesn't even account for Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce coming out of the backfield.
The Texans landed one of the NFL's better playmakers, but they also received one of the league's bigger headaches, as well.
Diggs is well-known for his cryptic tweets and sideline spats/rants to the point where any tweet or action produced on his accord became headline-grabbing news. That tends to follow a great player such as himself, but it's also a distraction that can really weigh on a team, no matter how much they deny or dismiss it.
That's what the Texans have signed up for, here. And while they are setting themselves up for a huge payout, they're also setting themselves up for some major blowback in the form of Diggs' antics.
Just think about it: Diggs wants the ball, a lot. As mentioned earlier, he rounds out an elite pass-catching group, but it's also a crowded one. The guy has averaged 148 targets per year, since 2018, as the No. 1 wideout in his respective offenses.
Now, he's entering a situation where he's likely going to be the No. 3 guy – or No. 2, at best.
As well as he should. Nico Collins is the true premier guy in this offense and Tank Dell is as explosive and reliable as they come when healthy. The latter should also be fully recovered from his season-ending injury by the time the season kicks off, too. There's zero point in disrupting the chemistry between those two and CJ Stroud, especially when considering the fact they are all significantly younger and have brighter futures than Diggs.
All of this has the potential for Diggs to go off when he's seen just one target in a game where the Texans are losing. And no one knows how long his negative vibes will linger, especially if things don't go to plan. All of that could seriously compromise the ultimate goal of winning it all, which is clearly what the Texans are trying to do.
Overall, it's a very low-risk move. The Texans didn't give up a ton of draft capital, Diggs has no guaranteed money left on his deal and he has high base salaries compromising his remaining years. Meaning, if things go awry, the Texans can cut him and save whatever his base salary/cap hit is for that year.
Still, Diggs could easily stand in the way of the main goal: winning a Super Bowl. And while this is a very low-risk, high-reward move in the big picture, that immediate detail could blow the whole thing up and make the Texans regret the move, in the end.
