NFL's top 100 Players: Why Buffalo Bills' Stefon Diggs Ranks 11th
The good news about Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs is that he ranks 11th in the NFL.com's most recent list of the league's top 100 active players.
That's also the bad news, as NFL analytics expert Cynthia Frelund explains in her list of the five biggest snubs from the top 10.
Despite leading the league in receptions and receiving yardage a year ago, Diggs doesn't crack the top 10 because he just doesn't measure up.
Frelund admits the exclusion of Diggs "is kind of nitpicky," but at least provides the statistics that led to his ranking of No. 11.
"The 2020 receptions leader accounted for 93 receptions, 1,173 yards and five touchdowns on 120 targets when aligned wide, second-most in the NFL," she wrote. "He also earned 2.7 yards per route run (tied for seventh-most), 685 receiving yards on play-action targets (most in the NFL) and 50 receptions for 490 yards on hitch routes, also the most receptions and receiving yards for that route in the league (NGS). Diggs' ability to change direction, as measured by his hips rotating at least 90 degrees while keeping his speed, ranked third-best among wide receivers when measured by computer vision."
All those numbers sound pretty darn good to us here at Bills Central, but apparently not good enough to land him in the top 10, not that it should matter to the Bills Mafia.
As long as the Bills get Diggs, who is nursing a minor knee injury and hasn't played in the preseason, back by the start of the regular season, they won't care where he's ranked because they know what he can do.
As far as that goes, coach Sean McDermott said Diggs "is trending in the right direction" to be ready for their season opener on Sept. 12 vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Diggs played with a torn oblique throughout the playoffs last January. The 27-year-old is entering his seventh NFL season, so the Bills are not going to push him toward a possible premature return.
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
