Wide receiver Stefon Diggs’ time in Buffalo was marked by a lot of production on the field as well as occasional outbursts during games and away from the field that led some to question if the former was worth putting up with the latter.
One of the reactions to the Bills’ decision to trade him to the Texans this month was that the Bills decided that the equation no longer balanced out. The Texans’ move to acquire him suggests they feel differently and General Manager Nick Caserio said on Thursday that he “doesn’t know what that means” when asked if Diggs’ “diva” reputation was a concern.
Caserio said that the Texans are “worried about what a player does when he walks in our building” and that the Texans aren’t going to make any judgments ahead of time.
“I think it’s unfair to label anybody until they actually have an opportunity to walk in the building,” Caserio said, via Adam Wexler of SportsRadio790. “Our environment is different than another environment, so we really don’t know what’s going on in 31 other buildings.”
The Texans and Diggs agreed to a revised contract that puts Diggs on a path to become a free agent after the 2024 season, which some saw as a sign that they wanted to hedge against any of the negative moments the Bills went through with Diggs the last few years. That could backfire if Diggs leaves after one season, but Caserio and the Texans are betting things will work out.
The Bills made a significant change to their offense earlier this month by trading receiver Stefon Diggs to the Texans.
Speaking to the media for the first time since the deal was executed, head coach Sean McDermott noted the difficulty of seeing a player like Diggs leave the organization.
“I mean, it’s hard, right? Stef’s a great player,” McDermott said in his Thursday press conference. “I really enjoyed our time together. Won a lot of games, and he was a huge factor in winning those games.
“We’ll miss him. You never replace a player like Stef Diggs. And we wish him well — Stef and his family. So, hard to move on from a player like that. And now we go back to looking at our roster and [we’re] excited for the opportunity that we have in that room for guys to step up.”
As G.M. Brandon Beane has said before, McDermott noted that quarterback Josh Allen was kept in the loop when it came to making the Diggs trade. But McDermott noted he’ll let Allen speak for himself when it comes to the quarterback’s reaction to the deal.
“Yeah, I mean, you always have conversations. Sometimes multiple conversations. You communicate, again, multiple times and you collaborate,” McDermott said. “This was a big decision, so one we didn’t take lightly.
“But, again, just trying to do what’s best for the team both for the near-term and the long-term.”
Over his four seasons with Buffalo, Diggs caught 445 passes for 5,372 yards with 37 touchdowns. In 2023, he finished with 107 receptions for 1,183 yards with eight TDs. He had 10 catches for 73 yards in the postseason.
We’ve heard from time to time over the past year or so that former Cardinals G.M. Steve Keim was paid $1 million to testify in the arbitration claim filed by former Cardinals executive Terry McDonough. The connection isn’t quite that direct.
Keim, per attorney Mike Caspino, received $1 million as part of a “cooperation agreement,” which requires him to testify in any cases that might emerge. The McDonough case was one of them.
“At first he tried to hide that but it came out,” Caspino added during his recent interview on Doug Franz Unplugged.
Keim was obviously a key witness, since he was the person with whom Cardinals employees allegedly were communicating with burner phones during his five-week suspension in 2018.
It’s possible that the $1 million payment was part of a standard severance agreement. However, Keim specifically called it a “cooperation agreement” while testifying in McDonough’s case.
We asked the Cardinals for comment/clarification on the subject.
“Again, we have a completely different perspective than what Mr. Caspino is alleging but while the legal process is ongoing, we are not going to comment publicly,” the Cardinals said.
Obviously, any suggestion that the Cardinals paid Keim $1 million to testify could cause some to think that Keim said whatever the team wanted him to say. If the cooperation clause was part of a broader severance agreement that paid Keim $1 million to, for example, waive any and all legal claims against the Cardinals, there’s a far different vibe.
There’s a chance more details will come to light in connection with the litigation filed recently regarding the team’s reaction to the filing of McDonough’s arbitration claim.
Giants tight end Darren Waller has been saying all offseason that he might retire, but he hasn’t made a decision. The Giants seem OK with that.
General Manager Joe Schoen said today that the Giants are giving Waller the time and space he needs to decide on his future.
Schoen said the Giants hope Waller’s decision comes in the “short term” but that the Giants haven’t given him a deadline.
The 31-year-old Waller was traded to the Giants last offseason and finished the season with 52 catches for 552 yards and one touchdown in 12 games. He has a $10.5 million base salary and is scheduled to cost $14.1 million against the Giants’ salary cap this season.
Bill Belichick presumably intends to coach again in 2025. Wednesday’s #LongRead from ESPN.com identified the teams he reportedly would be interested in coaching.
They are the three teams that many have already pegged as potential destinations: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants.
Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones already has spoken publicly about the possibility of working with Belichick. It’s something that might have happened in 2024, if Jones were willing to pay current coach Mike McCarthy not to work for the Cowboys in the final year of his contract.
And the Cowboys make the most sense. That’s a place where Belichick could say he fully intends to be only the coach and be held to it, since the front office and ownership are one in the same.
The Giants become an intriguing option, if co-owner John Mara is willing to turn the franchise over to Belichick. His name has emerged as a potential Giants option in the past, most notably when he was supposedly miffed over the resolution of the Brady-Garoppolo question. He also won a pair of Super Bowls as the defensive coordinator with the Giants.
If the Eagles were going to do it, why wouldn’t they have done it in 2024? The ESPN.com article addresses Philadelphia’s potential interest in Belichick as a replacement for Nick Sirianni. The concern reportedly was that, post-Belichick, the Eagles would have to start over again after he leaves.
“Who would replace him?” an unnamed source with firsthand knowledge of the Eagles’ thinking told ESPN. “He hasn’t had a good record of developing coaches. They were afraid that he’ll have changed everything and every person, and [then] you’ll be starting from scratch again. He didn’t demand those changes, but they felt like, if we hire him, we have to give everything to him and trust how he does it.”
So, frankly, the teams to watch are the Cowboys and maybe the Giants. If neither of those, he could be frozen out again in 2025. Which might mean he’ll be frozen out for good.
The Patriots have made a move to gain a little cap space.
Per Field Yates of ESPN, New England has agreed to a renegotiated contract with offensive lineman Calvin Anderson to lower his $3.35 million base salary.
With the new deal, the Patriots will gain $990,000 in cap space.
Anderson, 28, entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He has appeared in 46 games with 14 starts for the Broncos and Patriots since 2020. He’s also spent time with the Jets.
Appearing in five games with two starts for New England last season, Anderson played 154 offensive snaps with 15 special teams snaps.
During the annual league meeting last month, Colts head coach Shane Steichen said he thought Anthony Richardson would be ready for the start of the offseason program after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.
That now has turned out to be the case.
“He’s in a really good spot,” Steichen said in his Tuesday press conference. “Had really good discussions that I’ll obviously keep private, but he’s in a really good spot. His shoulder is feeling good. He should be good to go for practices like we talked about earlier. He will be out there throwing, but we’ll limit — we’ll obviously monitor it, make sure we’re smart with that but he’s in a really good place.”
Steichen noted that while Richardson will likely want to push things, the Colts will keep a watchful eye on the quarterback to hold him back if necessary.
“I mean, he’s a competitor,” Steichen said. “I think most guys that are competitors that want to be great are going to want to push themselves. But again, we’re just going to have to monitor it and then we’ll go from there.”
Richardson was able to play just four games as a rookie before being shut down due to injury. But going into his second year, Richardson has the advantage of already knowing the offense at this point in the offseason.
“Yeah, it’s big. It’s not new for him,” Steichen said. “He’s heard the terminology. Going through those meetings right now, going through it, quizzing and he’s all over it. We’ve got a good foundation going into this offseason and going into the season. So, it’s been good.”
Richardson completed 60 percent of his passes for 577 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in 2023, while also rushing for 136 yards with four TDs.
There have been several positive updates about Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson’s condition in recent weeks and General Manager Andrew Berry provided another one on Thursday.
Watson has been at the team’s offseason workouts this week and Berry shared a note about how his right shoulder is progressing after last year’s season-ending injury.
“This week Deshaun was throwing up to 40 yards,” Berry said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “He’s in a pretty good spot. Again, I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, he’s progressing as appropriate. We’re really, really pleased with the work that he’s put in and really pleased with how his shoulder’s responding, but we’re still in the rehab process. We know that it could take different left and right turns, but we’re pretty optimistic in terms of what we’ve seen so far.”
Berry said the expectation remains that Watson will be ready to go for the start of the regular season and that will continue to be the case as long as no signs to the contrary crop up as his workload ramps up in the coming weeks.
Next Thursday night, receiver Rome Odunze will be in Detroit. He’ll be waiting to see where he’s taken. And there’s one team he’d definitely welcome playing for.
The Las Vegas native recently told #PFTPM that he would be very interested in playing for the Raiders.
The Raiders hold the 13th pick in the draft. Some think they’d be more inclined to take Odunze’s former teammate, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. But with both Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell already on the team, why add another quarterback? Why not get a player to replace Davante Adams, who likely will be in his last year with the Raiders unless he takes a major pay cut in 2025?
Odunze believes his ceiling is the Cardinals at No. 4. Many think they’ll take Marvin Harrison Jr. in that spot. They could trade down a few spots and get Harrison or Odunze later, possibly.
The full interview with Odunze is attached. Check it out. And stick around for the giant Thanos hand aimed at helping secure Snickers ice cream bars.
The Patriots have been seen as a landing spot for one of the draft’s top quarterbacks for months and we’re a week away from finding out what they will do with the third overall pick.
De facto General Manager Eliot Wolf is doing his best to keep suspense about the team’s decision alive. Wolf said at a Thursday press conference that he thinks the team’s roster is equipped to start a rookie quarterback if the team does acquire one at the top of the first round and that there will be a quarterback worthy of the pick on the board, but said “no” when asked if he feels the Patriots have to come out of the night with a quarterback.
“We’re open to anything. Moving up, moving down. We’re open for business in the first round and every round,” Wolf said.
Wolf said there have been trade conversations with other teams, but that no one has made an overwhelming offer for the No. 3 pick at this point. That could change in the coming days or even with the team on the clock next Thursday, so it will be a while before we know what direction the Patriots will go in one of their first big decisions of the post-Bill Belichick era.