Cowboys tied for second-best odds to acquire Stefon Diggs if Buffalo Bills move on from him

Until there is a confirmed solution on Buffalo Bills WR Stefon Diggs chatter will always continue to swirl.

It was about a year ago whenwe interviewed Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs ahead of Super Bowl LVII. At the end of the conversation, he went out of his way to suggest that the Cowboys should acquire his brother, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

“We need Cowboys Nation to go and help and tweet to get bro here. We need everyone to know. We need to put it on notice that we need to get bro to Dallas.”

Stefon was asked about his brother’s comments later in the week leading up to the Super Bowl (again, this was now over a year ago) and did not throw cold water on the whole situation, but also did not exactly fan the flames. Shortly after the Cowboys traded for Brandin Cooks. Any idea of acquiring Diggs dissipated for at least another season.

But it has been over a year as mentioned and here we sit with the 2023 campaign behind us. It was another prosperous one for Stefon’s team, but individually he did regress (using that word very loosely) a bit. He had the fewest amount of receiving yards he has had since joining the Bills (still over 1,100, so again loosely speaking is appropriate) and was tied for the fewest amount of receiving touchdowns (eight) in the same stretch.

Stefon has never been shy about voicing his displeasure with the Bills and when things were particularly ominous for Buffalo during the regular season, Trevon was quick to jump to social media and note that Stefon needed to get away from the team.

The Cowboys are tied for the second-best odds to acquire Stefon Diggs if the Bills move on from him

It is abundantly clear that Trevon and Stefon want to play together at some point in their NFL careers, and when the former signed an extension with his team last year it made the Dallas Cowboys the more likely destination for that to ultimately happen (assuming it ever does).

The problem is that it has not exactly felt tenable for Buffalo to move on from Stefon, even despite all of the chatter about the situation, given the extension he signed with the team in 2022. But as we all know, nothing is ever impossible in the NFL and odds have emerged, a tip of the hat to ProFootballTalk, for potential Stefon Diggs homes should he not return to the Buffalo Bills who are the clear favorite to keep him at -300).

Stefon Diggs team Odds if the Buffalo Bills move on

• +1000: Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans
• +1200: Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears
• +1600: Carolina Panthers
• +2000: Atlanta Falcons
• +2500: Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants

When you simply look at these teams at the top, the Cowboys are among those who make the most sense due to being an NFC team. It feels pretty unlikely that Buffalo would help improve a Chiefs roster that they already cannot beat or that they would allow fellow AFC contenders like Houston or Baltimore to improve. Trades within the division are also rare in general so the Patriots feel unlikely as well.

These are just odds though and there is value to the Cowboys being included near the top, but the fact that Trevon has literally advocated for this certainly makes it a bit more unique than when this phenomenon happens in general. If – a big if – the Cowboys were to acquire Stefon, it would hardly be easy in a financial sense, but if they are going to take Jerry Jones’ “all-in” decree in the way that a lot of people wan them to, perhaps they would be willing to do it.

Our friends at Buffalo Rumblings have kept tabs on the entire Stefon Diggs situation over the short offseason so far and recently detailed the exact financial details involved if he were to be moved on from.

Releasing or trading Diggs now is salary-cap possible

So if the Bills can’t add a $31 million cap hit, how can they trade or release Stefon Diggs?

In his current salary cap number, Diggs accounts for nearly $28 million in cap space — so a release or trade would only add $3.2 million in cap commitments to their 2024 cap number. It’s something they could absorb if they really wanted to.

If they were able to trade him, the new team must be willing to take on Diggs and his soon-to-be-guaranteed $18.5 million salary in 2024 or negotiate some sort of new deal with the receiver.

Post-June 1 release is another option

Another option would be to designate Diggs as a post-June 1 release. It’s an accounting tool that would allow them to release Diggs prior to his March 18 contract guarantee deadline. He would still count on the cap at his current cap figure of $27.854 million until June 1. On that date, $19 million of cap space would become available for 2024 by shifting to 2025.

The problem with that move is that the cap relief is so late, the Bills wouldn’t have many options to spend that cap amount on impact players. The best free agents would all be off the board in March, April, and May.

If they waited until June to trade Diggs, it would have the same effect of clearing $19 million in 2024 cap space.

This offseason already promises significant news at the wide receiver position for the Dallas Cowboys as CeeDee Lamb is currently set to enter the final year of his rookie contract (his fifth-year option season) which makes a contract extension feel inevitable (it better be).

Beyond that, while the Cowboys have Brandin Cooks to serve as a running-mate for him, there is no question that Stefon Diggs would be an improvement in that regard which would allow the Cowboys to have one of the best trios in the NFL. Moving on from Michael Gallup feels like a matter of time unfortunately and while some are already advocating for different receivers in the NFL Draft, acquiring Stefon Diggs would accomplish that goal and then some. For now the decision rests with the Buffalo Bills.