The Bills are hoping to get their money’s worth from wide receiver Stefon Diggs in 2020. Buffalo sent a slew of picks to the Minnesota Vikings, including a first-round selection, in order to add a star No. 1 wideout for quarterback Josh Allen.
That asking price was high, but you’ve got to give something up something big to get something big and that’s exactly what the Bills did.
But in terms of what the Bills gave up for Diggs, what about that cold-hard cash? Or more importantly, the salary cap?
While the Bills did pay a nice chunk to the Vikings for Diggs’ services, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane didn’t absorb the worst one could imagine in terms of the salary cap when it came to adding the receiver.
Overall, Diggs is only the 18th highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL in terms of cap hit, per Spotrac. In a league with 32 teams, paying your best player in any position group in the lower half of the league is certainly desirable. That’s especially true when said player is probably amongst the top half in terms of their talents.
In 2020, Diggs will have a salary cap hit of $11.5 million. Comparing to some other players in the NFL who have larger cap hits next season, Buffalo’s certainly lucking out.
Among such guys are: Larry Fitzgerald ($11.75M), Tyler Lockett ($12.25M), and Alshon Jeffery ($15.45M).
That’s no disrespect to those guys, but by comparison, Diggs isn’t as injury prone as Jeffery, nor does he only have a single 1,000-plus yard season in his career like Lockett. And certainly all due respect to the legend that is Fitzgerald, but he’s also more than a decade older than Diggs.
Speaking of which, the Bills’ fiances with Diggs look even better through that scope. While Fitzgerald is entering the twilight of his career, Diggs, at 25, is entering the prime. Buffalo has Diggs under contract for the next four seasons, and realistically could slide another deal his way after that and still get productive years from him, if things turn out well.
And over the next three seasons of his deal starting in 2021, Diggs’ cap hit does jump, but only to $12M a year and that’s it. With the ever-rising salaries in the NFL each and every year, Diggs will probably stay in the same ballpark in terms of his yearly cap hit for the Bills. That and the league’s salary cap gets bigger and bigger each year as well.
The Bills certainly aren’t in the worst spot with Diggs’ contract moving forward.
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