Few members of the Buffalo faithful genuinely thought the Buffalo Bills would part ways with Stefon Diggs in the 2024 NFL offseason. That was simply media-driven nonsense, right? Sure, the perennial Pro Bowler’s 2023 season did not conclude in the way that he—or many others—would have liked, but there was simply no way the Bills were going to trade their fourth-all-time leading receiver, especially not when he, on several occasions, has expressed his desire to retire with the franchise.
Besides, his contract was unmoveable. Trading the 30-year-old would see Buffalo take on over $30 million in dead cap. The idea of a team with championship aspirations allocating over $30 million of its salary cap to a player no longer on the roster was unfathomable.
The Bills traded Diggs to the Houston Texans in early April, packaging the wideout with a sixth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and a fifth-round selection in next year’s draft to land a second-round choice in the 2025 draft.
The trade, sure, netted Buffalo an additional premium pick in a future draft. It also left its receiving corps without a bonafide primary target and its salary cap in a less-than-ideal state.
The Bills ate $31 million in dead cap by dealing Diggs; that’s $31 million—or roughly 12% of the salary cap—allotted to a player who will not take a snap for the team in the 2024 NFL season. It’s, to be kind, a bold strategy for a team that hopes to compete for the Super Bowl.
But it’s one that Bills general manager Brandon Beane is confident in. Buffalo removed the final three years of Diggs’s contract from its books by trading him to the Texas metropolis; as opposed to paying a seemingly disgruntled player roughly $25 million over the next three years, Beane simply decided to take his salary cap medicine in 2024 and be rid of the deal in future years.
