Stefon Diggs and 5 Other NFL Stars Who Might Get Traded in 2024 Offseason
For the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers, the 2023 NFL season rolls on. Their focus remains on winning Sunday and advancing to Super Bowl LVIII. But the other 28 teams in the league have already turned their attention toward preparing for next year.
For many, that means adding players, whether in free agency or the draft. But others also have decisions to make about potentially jettisoning players. Some are unhappy, while others are in decline. Others have salaries that place their franchise squarely in the red relative to the salary cap.
Many players will be released. But there's another way—a way that one team can add veteran talent while another adds draft picks that can be turned into younger (and less expensive) options: trades.
Trades in the NFL aren't as common as in the NBA or MLB, but we've seen more and more in recent years, including blockbusters involving the likes of Russell Wilson and Tyreek Hill.
Sometimes, these are simply borne of financial necessity or teams looking to hit the reset button. And occasionally, disgruntled players are sent packing.
Whatever the reason, the big names on this list could find themselves on the move in 2024.
Stefon Diggs, WR, Buffalo Bills
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Let's make one thing clear: From a financial perspective, the Buffalo Bills aren't likely to trade wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The 30-year-old is under contract with them through 2027, and dealing him before June 1 would leave a $31 million dead cap hit.
However, that hasn't stopped angry Buffalo fans from calling for Diggs to be dealt after he had just three catches for 21 yards in Sunday's divisional-round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, including a critical drop that will haunt Bills Mafia for some time.
However, Diggs' vanishing act in a playoff game (he had fewer receiving yards than running back Latavius Murray) isn't exactly new. In Buffalo's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round last season, he had four catches for 35 yards. In the loss to the Chiefs the year before, he had three catches for seven yards.
It's not just the postseason, either. After the Bills changed offensive coordinators midseason, Diggs' role in the offense diminished. The last time he had 100 yards in a game was Week 6 against the New York Giants. He didn't have double-digit targets in any of the Bills' last six games.
Per Matt Ehalt of the New York Post, the 30-year-old amassed 73 catches for 868 yards (86.8 yards per game) and seven touchdowns in the first 10 games of the season under former offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.
Once Joe Brady took over, Diggs racked up just 34 catches for 315 yards (45 yards per game) and one touchdown over the last seven regular-season games and only 10 catches for 73 yards and zero touchdowns in the Bills' two playoff games.
Diggs refused to speak to reporters after Sunday's loss, and expressing his displeasure with his role has never been something he's been shy about—including a no-show at the start of camp last year. He also effectively forced his way out of Minnesota in 2020.
If Diggs starts grumbling again, the Bills may decide that diminishing returns from an unhappy player on the wrong side of 30 with a fat salary may not be worth the grief. That could cause them to figure out a way to make that dead cap hit work.
Davante Adams, WR, Las Vegas Raiders
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For a good portion of the 2023 season, there was speculation that Davante Adams could be on his way out of Sin City.
The Raiders were a mess, and Adams isn't getting any younger. Many fans and pundits started envisioning a reunion between the 31-year-old and Aaron Rodgers with the New York Jets.
However, that was before interim head coach Antonio Pierce took over and the Raiders won five of their final nine games. Now Pierce has been hired full-time, and Adams seems pleased with the decision:
"That's my vote, and that's basically how the whole locker room feels. With good reason. He's come in and done a great job. He's continued to win us over. It's not just the comfortable thing. I think having AP here will be good for this organization. He kind of embodies what it means to be a Raider. That mentality, that swag and all the things he endorses [are] the things that I believe in.
"It's easy for a guy like me, especially having dealt with him a little bit this year now and gotten to know him and see his evolution in front of the team. All those things, all those different fields of being a head coach. Definitely rooting for him."
However, Pierce's hiring doesn't change the fact that the Raiders are closer to rebuilding than challenging the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West. The Jets are in win-now mode after Rodgers' first season with them was spoiled by an Achilles tear.
The Raiders rebuffed overtures from New York for Adams during the season, but that was under former general manager Dave Ziegler. If the Jets want the six-time Pro Bowler badly enough, they could make an offer the Raiders have to seriously consider.
And while Adams may not want out of Vegas, there's no denying he has a better chance of winning a Super Bowl in New York (in the short term, at least).
Justin Fields, QB, Chicago Bears
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Of all the potential trade candidates featured here, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields is the most likely to actually be dealt, largely because the Bears are on the verge of a franchise-defining decision.
By virtue of last year's trade with the Carolina Panthers, the Bears hold the first overall pick in a draft loaded with quarterback talent, including USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye and Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels of LSU.
While appearing on the First Draft podcast (h/t Phil Rogers of Forbes), ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. said he thought Chicago doesn't have a difficult decision at all:
"If you trade Justin Fields to Atlanta, you could get the eighth pick overall. You could have (picks) 1, 8 and 9 and recoup (more high picks) by trading down with one of those picks. So (there's) a lot of maneuverability for the Bears either way. But if it's me, I'm taking Caleb Williams and trading Justin Fields."
There are questions about Fields' viability as a high-end NFL starter. But the 24-year-old just posted the best passing numbers of his career, and we're talking about a dynamic runner who eclipsed 1,100 yards on the ground in 2022.
Questions or not, some teams will be interested in Fields given his youth and upside, whether it's the Falcons, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Las Vegas Raiders or the New England Patriots.
The Bears have the unique opportunity to potentially add an upgrade at the game's most important position, stockpile draft capital and reset the clock on a major extension for their franchise quarterback.
And who knows? Maybe a change of scenery is just what Fields needs to take the next step and realize his immense potential as a dual-threat quarterback.
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Joey Bosa, Edge, Los Angeles Chargers
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Before the 2023 season began, Los Angeles Chargers edge-rusher Joey Bosa told reporters that while individual honors are all well and good, what really matters to him at this point in his career is wins and losses:
"As I get older, the opportunities get smaller and smaller. When you're a rookie, you have your whole career ahead of you.
"The personal goals and the personal accolades, I feel like, as you get older, just don't quite mean as much. Obviously, winning Defensive Player of the Year would be an honor and all of that, but going out there with your team, with your friends, with your brothers that you've built the connection with, I think is a much more lasting accomplishment."
He got neither. The 28-year-old again struggled with injuries and missed eight games. The Chargers endured a five-win mess of a season that got head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco fired. Those five wins were L.A.'s fewest since 2019.
L.A. is in a similar position as the Raiders—not good enough to be considered contenders, but not bad enough to be a ground-up rebuild. It's also already projected to be $45.8 million over the salary cap.
Only one player on the roster (fellow edge-rusher Khalil Mack) carries a higher cap number in 2023 than Bosa. And while they would be left with an eight-figure dead cap hit after trading Bosa, they could save $22 million against next year's cap by doing so after June 1.
The sticking point here would be compensation. Normally, an elite edge-rusher in the prime of his career would fetch a significant haul of players and/or draft picks. But Bosa has missed at least four games in four of the past six seasons.
If the best ability is availability, then Bosa's lack of it can only drive down what teams are willing to give for the eight-year veteran—potentially to the point that it's no longer worth it for the Chargers to move him.
Mike Williams, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
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Bosa may not be the only big name in Los Angeles who could be dealt this offseason. The Chargers' cap situation is just that bad.
In 2021, Mike Williams had a breakout year with a career-high 76 catches for 1,146 yards and nine scores. That got him a three-year, $60 million extension from the Bolts.
But as is so often the case with the Chargers, that big contract was followed by disappointment. Williams missed four games in 2022 and saw his numbers drop as a result. In 2023, he was averaging a career-best 83.0 yards per game—right up until he tore his ACL three games into the season.
The good news, as Williams recently told reporters, is that his rehab appears to be progressing well:
"I'm feeling good. I'm slightly ahead. I'm in the right space. Just taking it one day at a time, that's the main thing. It's a process, so just taking it one day at a time but I'm ahead of the process. It's just timelines and stuff we were trying to meet and I'm hitting those timelines ahead of schedule. So, everything is looking good."
The bad news for the Chargers is that Williams' cap number in 2024 is almost $32.5 million. L.A. has Keenan Allen, Joshua Palmer and youngster Quentin Johnston on the roster. So, in theory, it could afford to move Williams.
With the 29-year-old headed into the final year of his deal, a new team would all but certainly want him to agree to a restructured deal or extension. But lowering that gaudy cap number could actually help facilitate a deal and improve the Chargers' compensation.
Alvin Kamara, RB, New Orleans Saints
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There are certain constants in the NFL, like Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs playing in the AFC Championship Game. One of those constants is the New Orleans Saints entering the offseason in a terrible position relative to the salary cap.
The Saints are currently projected to be a whopping $83.7 million over next year's cap. They're going to have to do some restructurings, cuts and possibly a trade or two this offseason.
Alvin Kamara is quite possibly the best running back the Saints have ever had. In 2023, he set the franchise record for rushing touchdowns. And as quarterback Jameis Winston told reporters, he's been the engine that makes the New Orleans offense go for some time now:
"Everything that we do goes through him. He's the best player on our team. And that's what he expects, that's what we expect out of him. I'm just grateful to be his teammate and I'm proud of him. I'm proud of how he comes to work every single day. When you are in the locker room with a Hall of Fame guy they can just do whatever they want to do but he comes with an approach he shows up on gameday and puts on a show for all of us."
Kamara is also a 28-year-old player at the league's most devalued position with a cap hit of $18.9 million in 2024 and $29.0 million in 2025.
Trading the Tennessee product before June 1 would leave the Saints with a $17.2 million dead cap hit and save them only $1.7 million. But after June 1, they'd have only a $7.1 million dead cap hit this year and would save $11.8 million against the cap.
Even contenders who think they are one piece away from the Super Bowl will be reluctant to pay Kamara the gaudy numbers he's owed the next two years.
But the Saints have youngster Kendre Miller and veteran Jamaal Williams under contract in the backfield, and Kamara knows as well as anyone that his window as a starter in the NFL (and his odds of winning a Super Bowl) are narrowing.
Add the two together, and there's a chance that a deal gets done.
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