Bills GM Vows to Have 'Damn Good' Team in 2024 Despite Stefon Diggs Trade to Texans

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane isn't expecting the team to take a big step backward despite agreeing to trade star wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans.

The Bills netted a 2025 second-round pick in return for Diggs, a 2024 sixth-rounder and a 2025 fifth-rounder.

"This fanbase needs to trust us that we're going to trot out a damn good football team in September," Beane told reporters after the deal was announced.

He did acknowledge, however, that losing Diggs will carry a cost:

To Beane's more broad point, it's impossible to argue Buffalo is better without a player who has had 1,000-plus receiving yards for six successive seasons. The team is now heading into 2024 with Khalil Shakir as the No. 1 wideout after Gabriel Davis signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the offseason.

One thing working in the Bills' favor is the 2024 NFL draft class. From that perspective, they couldn't have picked a better time to deal Diggs. Eleven of the top 60 players on Bleacher Report's big board are wide receivers.

Even assuming Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU's Malik Nabers and Washington's Rome Odunze are all too highly rated to be unattainable for Buffalo, one of Brian Thomas Jr. of LSU, Keon Coleman of Florida State or Jalen McMillan of Washington could still be available when Beane is on the clock with the No. 28 pick.

The Minnesota Vikings wrote the blueprint for replacing a pass-catcher as dynamic as Diggs when they traded him to the Bills and then turned around and took Justin Jefferson in the 2020 draft. And Jefferson lasted until the 22nd pick that year.

Fans in Western New York are right to have some concerns because some notable players are gone from the 2023 squad. And any sort of step backward will be considered a disappointment for a franchise with four straight division titles.

Sometimes a soft reset is necessary for a team to achieve its long-term aims, though.