Texans' Stefon Diggs Rips Critics: I Didn't Forget 'How to F--king Play Football'

Ahead of his first season with the Houston Texans, four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs reflected on the end of his tenure with the Buffalo Bills.

In an interview with Clay Skipper of GQ Sports, Diggs seemed to suggest that his significant dip in production during the second half of the 2023 campaign had more to do with the Bills making a change at offensive coordinator than it did his own play:

"The games looked a lot different. You can blame me. I don't mind blaming me. I got big-ass shoulders. But pay attention, pay real close attention. Watch the game. Of course there's plenty of plays I want back. But there's a lot of plays that didn't go my way. I need a lot of things to go right to get the ball...

"You can't roll out of bed and get 800 yards in the first eight games. Your best receiver's doing that. You tell me about the last 10. What changed? Were there changes going on? I just pay attention to what really happened and not what people try to act like happened. Like, for the last 10 games, I forgot how to f--king play football?"

Diggs was a Pro Bowler in all four of his seasons in Buffalo and was by far quarterback Josh Allen's favorite target, but the Bills decided to move on during the offseason, trading him, a 2024 sixth-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Texans for the Minnesota Vikings' 2025 second-round pick.

Diggs' final stat line of 107 receptions for 1,183 yards and eight touchdowns in 2023 looks solid, although that marked his fewest yards and tied for his fewest touchdowns in a single season in Buffalo.

Over the first nine games of the season, Diggs appeared poised for a career year, a second first-team All-Pro selection and perhaps even contention for NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors.

Diggs had 70 catches for 834 yards and seven touchdowns during that timeframe, including going over 100 yards in four of the first five games of the campaign.

Things went south from Week 10 on, though, with Diggs registering only 37 grabs for 349 yards and one score over his final eight games.

To Diggs' point, he wasn't as much of a focal point of the offense down the stretch, as he averaged 10.8 targets per game in the first nine contests and 7.9 targets per game in the final eight.

After a Week 10 loss to the Denver Broncos, the Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and replaced him with quarterbacks coach Joe Brady.

The Bills went on to win six of their final seven games with Brady calling the plays, but that came along with more of a run-heavy approach that took some pressure off Allen and minimized Diggs to some degree.

Through the first 10 weeks under Dorsey, running back James Cook was 20th in the NFL in carries, but he was 10th from Weeks 11-18 under Brady, per Jarrett Bailey of Sporting News.

Allen also went from second in the NFL in passing attempts through Week 10 to 15th in that category after Brady took over.

All of that undoubtedly contributed to Diggs' decline to some degree, but he also caught just 58.6 percent of his targets under Brady, compared to 71.6 percent over the first 10 weeks, which suggests he was far less efficient with the targets he was given.

Diggs also had just 10 catches for 73 yards and no touchdowns in two playoff games, and most memorably, he dropped a bomb that was almost perfectly placed by Allen during the fourth quarter of Buffalo's AFC Divisional Round loss to the Chiefs, which may have significantly impacted the outcome of the game.

Now, Diggs has a fresh start in Houston with one of the NFL's fastest-rising stars at quarterback in C.J. Stroud, who surprisingly led the Texans to an AFC South title last season and won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

Along with Nico Collins and Tank Dell, Diggs is part of arguably the best wide receiver trio in the NFL, and having that level of talent around him could be significant in helping him bounce back and return to the form he displayed for most of his time in Buffalo.