Stefon Diggs is Reportedly Frustrated with His Role and Wants a Say in the Play Calling

In case it wasn't obvious back in January, when he pantomimed his aggravation with broad gestures and played to the back row like a kid doing a high school production of Twelve Angry Men, Stefon Diggs took some umbrage with the Bills offense. Not that I know what umbrage is, but I can spot a mile away when somebody is taking some. And Diggs was taking a dump truck full.

And in case you missed it last week, he's been helping himself to more of the stuff as the Bills have begun mandatory workouts:

And by no means, has anyone in Orchard Park gotten their story straight on any of it. McDermott went from "very concerned" to doing a total 180. Let's call that a three-point turn, as first he said he wasn't talking about it before claiming Diggs did "everything that he was asked to do" and they were having "great communication" and everything was just perfectly super duper swell. Then Josh Allen added that they were working out their issues, but they're "not football related." Then Diggs participated in the individual portion of practice before skipping out on the team session. As one will do when they're doing everything asked of him and all is well. 

Since then, there's been no updates beyond Diggs' confusing posts on the Gram. Until now:

Source (paywall) - This is a rare situation where the issue doesn’t appear to be money. Diggs signed a four-year, $96 million deal last offseason and is set to make a healthy $24.4 million in 2023.

Diggs’s frustration is with his role in the offense and his voice in play-calling, per a league source close to the Bills’ locker room. He was visibly agitated at Allen during the 27-10 playoff loss to the Bengals, stormed out of the locker room almost immediately after the game, and didn’t attend any voluntary workouts this offseason. …

Diggs’s agent, Adisa Bakari, told ESPN that [it's] an “in-house” issue, not contractual.

But by Wednesday, Diggs was back on the field, and McDermott spoke of the importance of involving Diggs more.

“Listen, getting Stef the ball is an important part of our offense. There’s no reason to say it isn’t,” McDermott said. “He’s a big focal point of our offense. …"

Over the last six games in 2023, including two playoff games, Diggs caught just one touchdown pass and averaged a meager 63 receiving yards. per game. In the playoff loss to the Bengals, a listless, blowout defeat at home, Diggs had just four catches for 35 yards.

Now, before we go another sentence, let's address the 2,000 pound buffalo in the room. Ben Volin is reporting this. And claiming he's hearing it from "a league source close to the Bills' locker room." So maybe it's a team executive. Maybe it's someone from the NFL or another team. It could be the guy who does the laundry, like the Bills' Will Kitman. But it definitely isn't coming from a Stoolie pretending to be a league source close to the Bills' locker room. 

That we know about. Anyway, let's proceed as if it isn't. 

So it would appear Diggs isn't satisfied with the Bills offense in general and his role in it in particular. Which to a receiver only ever means he's not getting the ball enough. Because since the legalization of the forward pass, no one ever went to their coach demanding more chances to be a decoy or bitched at his quarterback in the huddle to stop looking in his direction. 

The problem in this case is that it's hard to imagine Diggs playing any bigger role than he already has. Of the 361 receptions the team had on the season, 108 belonged to him. That's 29.9%. Of their 4,291 receiving yards, 1,429 were Diggs, or almost exactly one out of every three. And only Gabriel Davis (836 yards) had more than 517. Diggs already is the whole passing attack. Arguing he's not getting enough touches is like Tom Cruise saying in the next Mission: Impossible film, he needs more of the stunts that are going to Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames. 

But who knows? We keep hearing that it's not a football issue, and it's not a contract issue. It's neither fish nor foul. Neither Jew nor Greek. We're only told what it isn't. But if it is about him being given a role in the play calling, hoo boy, I don't envy the coaching staff or Josh Allen. Because any time you give someone a say in the decision making, their solution is always going to involve more of themselves. 100% of the time. Ask the Department of Education what we need to fix America, and they're always going to say more money for education. The Bureau of Land Management will tell you we need more land managed. Ask the people over at Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and they're going to say it's all about the A's, T's and F's. And wide receivers are going to demand more passes going to more wide receivers, and no other things. It's human nature. When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So when that 33.3% of the Bills passing offense that last went to Stefon Diggs gets upped to 40 or even 50%, they're going to be the easiest team in the league to game plan for. 

Besides, this isn't the first time Diggs has found himself involved in an offense that frustrated him:

So stay tuned. League sources close to the Bills locker room are never wrong.