SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Stefon Diggs #14 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates after a 41-yard touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the first quarter of the NFC Divisional Round Playoff game at Levi’s Stadium on January 11, 2020 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
The Vikings traded Stefon Diggs, but that wasn’t initially their plan
Stefon Diggs has been one of the most explosive receivers in the NFL since the Minnesota Vikings landed him in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He went on to be quite the steal for the Vikings, totaling 4,623 receiving yards and 30 touchdowns in five seasons.
With the Vikings proving they could finally win a big game this past season, trading Diggs seemed like something the team only was willing to do because he had become a bit of a thorn in their sides.
According to head coach Mike Zimmer, however, that wasn’t the case.
Why did the Minnesota Vikings trade Stefon Diggs?
Zimmer was a guest on the Rich Eisen Show last week and had this to say about why Minnesota sent Diggs to Buffalo,
“We really didn’t have any intention of trading him. Quite honestly, he put out a couple tweets, and there were some things going on there. But Stefon worked extremely hard. He practices like crazy. He wants the ball — like all receivers do. Really, what happened was, Buffalo came in and gave us all those picks. And we were up against it in the salary cap.
Zimmer and the Vikings wanted Diggs to remain a Viking and why wouldn’t they? He’s had over 1,000 yards receiving the past two years and found the end zone 15 times between those two seasons. The guy is a machine and any quarterback would be lucky to have him.
At the same time, however, it’s easy to understand why the Vikings made this trade. If Buffalo was willing to give them what they did (2020 first-round pick, 2020 fifth-round pick, 2020 sixth-round pick and 2021 fourth-round pick), then why not make that deal? Minnesota was able to parlay one of their now two first rounders into a wide receiver (Justin Jefferson of LSU), so they already found Diggs’ replacement.
Diggs is an electric receiver, but when it came down to it, the Bills were willing to give up a king’s ransom to acquire him, so the Vikings figured this was the time to ship him off. They still have Adam Thielen as well as newly added Jefferson, so it’s not like their receiver room is lacking by any means.
It’ll be interesting to see how Diggs fares in Buffalo with a quarterback like Josh Allen, but what’ll be even more interesting is to look at this trade four or five years down the road and see who “won” the trade.