Former Vikings Wide Receiver Traded For Former Vikings Draft Pick

Former Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs was traded to the Houston Texans on Wednesday morning for a draft pick that used to belong to Minnesota. After four highly successful seasons with the Bills, Diggs was traded from Buffalo to the Texans, who suddenly look like a force to be reckoned with in the AFC. Houston gets Diggs and two late-round picks, while Buffalo gets the Vikings' 2025 second-rounder that was recently included in the deal for the No. 23 overall pick this year.

This is quite the April blockbuster. There had been rumors that Diggs' relationship with the Bills had frayed, but not to the point of indications that a trade was on the way. Diggs made four Pro Bowls and two All-Pro teams in four seasons with the Bills after being acquired in the March 2020 trade that resulted in the Vikings drafting Justin Jefferson. Over the last four years, only Tyreek Hill, Jefferson, and Davante Adams had more regular season receiving yards than Diggs. Including playoffs, he had nearly 6,000 yards and 39 touchdowns as Josh Allen's WR1 for the last four seasons in Buffalo.

The first takeaway from this trade is that the Texans aren't messing around. C.J. Stroud won offensive rookie of the year last year, and now Diggs has been added to a pass-catching group that already included Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and Dalton Schultz. DeMeco Ryans' defense also added Danielle Hunter to pair with defensive rookie of the year Will Anderson Jr. earlier this offseason. That's a team to watch in the AFC this year and beyond.

For Diggs, this move works out well. He won't be playing with Allen anymore, but Stroud is pretty impressive in his own right. Diggs is going from a team whose Super Bowl window seemed to be closing to a team whose window is just opening. He's also reunited with former Vikings teammates Hunter and Case Keenum.

It's tough to see how this move makes the Bills better. They're eating north of $30 million this year by trading Diggs and further depleting a wide receiver room that already lost Gabe Davis this offseason. Right now, ahead of the draft, the Bills' top WRs are Khalil Shakir and Curtis Samuel. Then again, getting a future second-round pick back for an expensive receiver who turns 31 this year isn't awful value. And if Diggs wanted a fresh start (for the second time in his career), it makes sense for the Bills to move on.

During Diggs' four years with the Bills, the team won 48 regular season games and four consecutive AFC East titles, reaching the divisional round every year. But they only made it to one AFC title game and zero Super Bowls in that span, getting knocked out by the Chiefs in three of those years and the Bengals once. And for as productive as Diggs was, he had 60 yards or fewer in five of the Bills' six playoffs games over the past three years. His final game in Buffalo saw him catch three passes for 21 yards on eight targets in January's loss to Kansas City.

The Bills will move on and look to reload around Josh Allen, and the Texans are going for it all while they've got Stroud on a rookie contract.

The Vikings will see Diggs and Hunter at U.S. Bank Stadium this year when the Texans come to town.

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