Bills' offseason decisions: Trading Diggs, adding Samuel and Valdes-Scantling

With the trade of Stefon Diggs and the signings of Curtis Samuel and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the Buffalo Bills have made significant changes to their wide receiver corps this offseason.

The Buffalo Bills have made several key decisions this offseason, including trading away star wide receiver Stefon Diggs and signing veteran pass-catchers Curtis Samuel and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

The Bills traded Diggs to the Houston Texans in April in exchange for future draft picks. The move came after Diggs signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension with the Bills in 2022.

Bills general manager Brandon Beane said that moving forward with Diggs' contract on the books would effectively place a financial "albatross" around the team for the next couple of years. The team had to take on around $31 million in dead money against its salary cap for the 2024 season.

"I mean, listen, there's a lot of things I think you weigh," Beane said. "A player of his caliber, you weigh a lot of things. But ultimately, we just talked about the [salary] cap. ... I don't need to go through all the reasons why we decided to go ahead and do that. I would say, from a cap standpoint, we decided just to go ahead and eat it out now. We think we can compete and do what we need to do by eating it now. Because if we didn't, if we tried to come up with some way to split it up too many different ways, it's just like that albatross hanging on your neck all year. ... What's '25 look like? What's '26?"

Aside from the financial implications, Diggs recently appeared to be unhappy in Buffalo. In a now-deleted tweet, he wrote, "Business is business. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed but the reality is I'm in Buffalo."

Even without Diggs on the roster, Beane is confident the Bills will be contenders.

"I'm super competitive," Beane continued. "I'm going to be ripping myself the minute we have to walk into a year and I feel like we got to play with one arm tied behind our back because the cap is what it is. ... We got Josh Allen, and we want to compete every single year for a championship."

To replace Diggs, the Bills signed Samuel and Valdes-Scantling. Samuel is a versatile receiver who can line up in the slot or on the outside. He has averaged over 800 yards receiving per season in his career.

Valdes-Scantling is a deep threat who can stretch the field. He has averaged over 15 yards per catch in his career.

The Bills also drafted former Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman in the second round of the NFL Draft. Coleman is a 6-foot-3, 220-pound receiver who has the potential to be a star in the NFL.

"I would say our receiver room right now is like Baskin-Robbins," Beane joked. "We got a lot of flavors."

The Bills have made some significant changes to their wide receiver corps this offseason. It remains to be seen how these changes will impact the team's performance on the field, but the Bills are confident that they have the pieces in place to compete for a championship.