Inside the Stefon Diggs Blockbuster Trade: Insights from NFL Players, Executives

The Balance of Power in the AFC May Be Shifting towards Houston.

Image via USATODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills traded electrifying wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, and paid a hefty price to do so.

General manager Brandon Beane and the Bills acquired the second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft that the Texans previously acquired from the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for Diggs, a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft and a fifth-round pick in 2025.

“I’m just sitting here wondering how you’re supposed to stop that [Texans] offense,” a current NFL defensive player told me by text message, shortly after the trade was finalized.

Buffalo will also absorb $31 million in dead money this season for the privilege of trading Diggs. It’s the largest dead-money charge ever for a wide receiver, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Beane and the Bills seemingly really, really wanted to move on from Diggs.

Reactions to the blockbuster deal were mixed among current and former NFL executives I spoke to in the immediate aftermath of the Bills dealing away one of the game’s most dynamic talents to an ascending team that very well might be the Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest threat to a Super Bowl three-peat.