Getty Stefon Diggs #14 of the Buffalo Bills warms up prior to a game against the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium on December 11, 2022.
The Buffalo Bills (12-3) are preparing to take on the Cincinnati Bengals (11-4) on Monday Night Football, which has turned out to be their biggest matchup of the regular season, so it was concerning when the team’s injury report on Wednesday showed that their No. 1 wide receiver, Stefon Diggs, was not able to participate in practice.
Diggs did not play due to an “illness” but no other details were provided. Bills head coach Sean McDermott said they hope to get Diggs back “sooner rather than later this week,” per ESPN‘s Alaina Getzenberg, but didn’t note what type of sickness the 29-year-old was dealing with.
Amid the mystery illness, fans and analysts couldn’t help but point out the three-time Pro Bowler’s tweets from two nights ago, during which he lamented about cooking dinner for himself. Stuck at home in the blizzard that blanketed Buffalo, Diggs tweeted, “Another night of feeding myself,” before adding, “Forced to use the skills I learned when i did two years in culinary school.” His final tweet on Monday, December 27 read, “This whole cooking for yourself shit 0-10 wouldn’t recommend. I be damn near too tired to eat after and then gotta wash the dishes after yeah nah.”
how it started how it’s going
After seeing the Bills injury report, NFL analyst Warren Sharp tweeted a screenshot showing Diggs’ tweets juxtaposed next to Wednesday’s report. “How it started/How it’s going,” Sharp tweeted.
Sharp was far from the only person to put the two and two together, and rumors that Diggs was suffering from possible food poisoning filled Twitter, One fan saw the injury report and tweeted, “It’s probably because @stefondiggs had to make his own food these past few days,” while another person wrote, “Hopefully diggs didn’t give himself food poisoning with all that home cooking. Feel better @stefondiggs.”
Diggs replied to Sharp on Wednesday night to dispel the rumors. While he didn’t reveal what’s ailing him, the receiver wrote, “Lol this was funny but I ain’t cook last night.”
Diggs Is Looking to Get More Targets in Week 17
GettyStefon Diggs #14 of the Buffalo Bills looks on against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on December 24, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
During the Bills 35-13 win over the Chicago Bears on Christmas Eve, quarterback Josh Allen didn’t target Diggs once in the first half, which left fans and analysts scratching their heads since Buffalo was down 10-6 after two quarters. While Diggs saw some action in the second half, catching two receptions for 26 yards, it’s not the kind of performance expected from one of the league’s top QB/WR duos.
Thus far this season, Diggs has racked up 101 receptions for 1,325 yards and 10 touchdowns, so it was strange to see the star get overlooked. Allen said during the postgame press conference that the 9-degree, inclement weather at Soldier Field made it difficult to get him the ball, especially with the “winds and gusts.”
“Obviously, I wanna get 14 more involved and that’s something I got to continue to do,” Allen said. “I’m just trying to make the smart play and throw it to the open guy, but it’s not too many times that he’s not open,” Allen said. “So again, just find ways to get him the ball, and get him more involved in our offense. He is the best receiver in the game.”
“We want the ball in his hands,” Allen continued. “It’s no secret, you know, the type of player and person that he is. Whether it’s moving him around – the last thing I want to do is force-feed someone when it’s not there – but being more detailed and scheming him up, whether it’s at (the) one, two, or three, motioning him, getting off coverage. There are so many different ways that you can do that and obviously, I’ll talk to Dorse and figure out how we can best do that moving forward.”
ESPN Analyst Says This Bills vs. Bengals Matchup Feels Like the ‘Super Bowl’
Bills (12-3) at Bengals (11-4): a historic Monday Night Football matchup 🔥
Hopefully, Diggs is back to full health when the Bills travel to Paycor Stadium to take on the Bengals as they’re fighting to hold onto the No. 1 seed in the AFC and clinch home-field advantage for the postseason. With two of the most explosive quarterbacks in the league facing off, Allen and Joe Burrow, even ESPN analyst Joe Buck gets chills thinking about it.
“We’ve (he and Troy Aikman) never called a game in the AFC with this much on the line in our 21 years,” Buck said, per The Athletic. “You hoped when the schedule came out that it would come down to something like this, but there’s so many different factors involved that rarely does it get there, whether it’s an injury or one team doesn’t play as well as you think it will. But this feels like an AFC Championship Game to me. I was just thinking about the game, and I got that rush of nerves and excitement that I would typically get the week of the Super Bowl. It was a great feeling to have.”