Selfish Bills? Patriots Rival Stefon Diggs Wants 'Play-Calling Input' in Buffalo

There is a short list of things that could threaten to end the Buffalo Bills' three-year reign atop the AFC East - and one of them is revealing itself in the form of Stefon Diggs' selfishness.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen recently insisted that Diggs‘ unhappiness with the team - which caused him to sit out the first day of minicamp while posting on social media about "lying big dawgs'' is “not football-related.'' But we got the sense in Allen's press conference - highlighted by the team leader's insistence that he "f****** loves'' his "brother' Diggs - that he was covering for Diggs by downplaying the "drama-queen'' aspect of his career-long penchant for pouts and protests.

And now we have Ben Volin of the Boston Globe citing a source “close to the Bills locker room'' who says that Diggs is frustrated with his role in the club’s offense and his input in play-calling.

His "role in the offense''? Diggs gets around 160 targets annually and last year caught 108 balls. Indeed, since coming to Buffalo via a 2020 offseason trade that resulted from Diggs whining his way out of Minnesota, prior to the 2020 season, Diggs’ 484 targets are second only to Davante Adams'.

"Play-calling''? The wide receiver wants to be involved in "play-calling''? In the chain of command that makes a football team operate, that's not an especially reasonable demand.

On the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, when Bills head coach Sean McDermott told the media that Diggs was not in attendance and that he was "very concerned'' about it? That felt real; later in the week, when McDermott declared the matter resolved? That clearly is not real.

Cap finances make a trade highly unlikely. Diggs' salary of $24 million a year means this isn't about money. And of course, all along, that only left one possible driving force. As basketball legend Pat Riley labels it? "The Disease of Me.''

It is true that Diggs' numbers declined late last year, and that in the team’s snowy divisional-round loss to the Bengals in January, he caught just four catches for 35 yards. But the Bills likely assumed that Diggs' sideline rant in Allen's face, and his post-game storming out of the locker room, were temporary.

And now we know that "temporary'' for Buffalo isn't "temporary'' at all. It is still happening, beginning the Bills' 2023 season in the same dubious way the Bills' 2022 season ended.

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