Bills’ Stefon Diggs trade is all about extending Josh Allen’s prime

The old Bills are dead.

Rest in peace to an era of Bills football that featured plenty of fireworks and high scores, while never truly overcoming the proverbial hurdle of making it to the Super Bowl. Their offseason moves were one of a team getting rid of the old guard while stepping into a new era. Jordan Poyer, Mitch Morse, Micah Hyde and now Stefon Diggs will be playing elsewhere next season.

The Bills’ star wideout was traded to the Houston Texans on Wednesday for a meager package of a 2025 second-round pick. In addition to Diggs, the Bills sent Houston a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2024 sixth-round pick, another signal that they want to start a new era this year.

When considering this trade with the Bills, it’s natural to wonder if the Stefon Diggs they traded away is the same one they acquired in 2020.

Diggs was healthy in 2023, but took a big step back in the Bills’ offense after coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired. Among players with 40 or more targets in the first 10 games of the season with Dorsey as coordinator, Diggs was first in overall targets, 28th in EPA per target, and had five games with over 100 yards. Ta. It was a different story after Dorsey’s shot, with Diggs failing to exceed 100 yards in any game and ranking 57th among pass catchers in EPA per target with 40 targets and one touchdown. With his high cap hit, it was clear the Bills were moving into a new era of offense that didn’t require Diggs. Very similar to the team Buffalo has been chasing for the past four or five years. kansas city chiefs.

It’s been well opined by many (including yours truly) that the Chiefs’ offensive transformation is one of the most impressive we’ve seen in a while. It’s incredibly difficult for him to go from a very explosive but very inconsistent offense to one of the most efficient buzzsaws in modern football in three years.They started this after losing to AFC in the AFC Championship cincinnati bengalsand by trading WR Tyreek Hill. miami dolphins They were able to activate changes in its composition. As teams play more two-high defenses, opposing coordinators have three ways to get their teams out of the situation. You can either be deadly efficient with a quick game of passing the ball, or you can go big and attack teams in the run game, or you can have monsters. A QB who can bring a team out of its shell by being a plus-one in the run game.

Through the first 10 games of 2023, Bills QB Josh Allen ranks third in the NFL in RPO attempts and fifth in pass attempts between 0 and 10 air yards. However, according to Sports Info Solutions, Allen only recorded six of his QB runs designed as a runner. The Bills’ game plan during the Dorsey era was simple. The idea was to reduce the amount of body blows Allen receives as a runner, emphasize a quick game, and transform Allen into a buzzsaw-type QB who can hit from short to middle areas.

After Joe Brady took over, the RPO went down, the quick game went down, but the QB engineered run game went up, and the overall run game went up as well. The Bills switched from the first option to more of a mix of twos and threes to get the team out of two-high. With the Diggs trade, the Bills are betting that coordinator Joe Brady will take the next step in play-calling and better mesh his aims in the run and pass games. Too often, it felt like the Bills’ passing game took a backseat to the successful run game they had in the second half of the season. Brady must continue to improve as a play-caller without the “Go Boom Stefon Diggs” button and give the QB more help in pass design.

So let’s talk about Allen. This trade is a bet that Josh Allen will double his strength in the run and pass game. With the departure of Diggs and wide receiver Gabe Davis, the Bills’ targets will be a motley group of tight end Dalton Kincaid, wide receivers Khalil Shaquille, Curtis Samuel and running back James Cook. The reason Kansas City hasn’t missed a beat with the evolution of its offense is because QB Patrick Mahomes has evolved along with it. Allen will evolve his game, whether it’s by becoming more efficient in the quick game area or allowing his receivers to make plays after the catch (Samuel and Shaquille are good at it) while continuing to mitigate the bozo gene plays. I have to let it happen. Early in Allen’s evolution, Diggs was a dynamo who was easy to use as a button on offense and could take over a football game. With Diggs getting older and Allen getting better, it’s now Allen who will be Buffalo’s easy button in the run and pass game.

Will it lead to a second straight Super Bowl appearance like Kansas City? That may not be the case, but Allen and Brady must continue to evolve now that Diggs is gone.