Getty Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen celebrate a play in a Buffalo Bills game.
The trade that shipped Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans this week came as a surprise to many, but a new report reveals that tensions with the Buffalo Bills may have been brewing for months leading up to the deal.
The Athletic’s Tim Graham reported that the team’s patience with Diggs wore thin over a series of incidents, including one locker room blowup from quarterback Josh Allen. Graham revealed that Allen grew heated with Diggs after the team’s season opening loss to the New York Jets in September, an incident that had previously gone unreported.
Josh Allen’s Outburst at Stefon Diggs
In his podcast “Tim Graham and Friends,” the Bills insider revealed that Allen was visibly upset in the locker room following the team’s overtime loss to the Jets on Monday Night Football. Allen had thrown 3 interceptions in the game and was sitting at his locker in full uniform as other players tried to console him.
“And I quoted Dion Dawkins in the story. He said, ’17 for life, I mean that.’ They were trying to pick the guy up. He had a towel draped over his head, he just sat there,” Graham said.
But Allen had a much more testy exchange when Diggs came to talk to him.
“I didn’t include it [in my story] because I don’t know what Stefon Diggs said to him, but Josh Allen snapped at him,” Graham said. “He said, ‘It’s one [expletive] game,’ and kind of motioned like, ‘I’m not talking to you.’ And Diggs walked away and Josh just sat there.”
🚨🚨🚨BOMBSHELL REPORT🚨🚨🚨
Josh Allen WENT OFF on Stefon Diggs in the locker room after their week one loss after Diggs complained to Allen.
“IT IS ONE F*CKING GAME,” Allen told Diggs.
(Via @TheAthletic)
Graham stressed that he did not hear what Diggs had to say and it may have been an innocent remark, but Allen didn’t have the same reaction with any other player and Graham speculated that Diggs may have been getting under Allen’s skin.
The season opener was the first game the Bills played since their bitter playoff exit in 2023, when Diggs was seen growing heated with Allen on the sidelines during their loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Josh Allen Had Publicly Defended Star Receiver
While there may have been some tensions behind the scenes, Allen publicly defended Diggs and stressed that there were no problems between them. Just after Diggs was sent home from the team’s first day of mandatory minicamp in June 2023, Allen said that the media was blowing the situation out of proportion.
In an appearance on “Bussin’ With the Boys” recorded on June 21, Allen stressed that he and Diggs were fine.
“I love him. That’s my guy,” Allen said. “The media has blown this so far out of proportion. We’re in minicamp, we’re not playing a game for four months. He doesn’t show up one day. He’s still there, you know, coach asked him to go home.”
“We were in talks and discussions of trying to resolve some things, and it wasn’t anything major. … And the media just blew it up. And they’re still talking about it. Let it go. There’s no reason to continue talking about it. He’s on the field with us the next day. It was not a big deal.”
Though there were no public issues during the season, Diggs did endure a major slump over the final stretch of the season. He was held without a touchdown for the team’s final seven games, the longest stretch of his career without a score.