Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz is joined by senior NFL reporters Jori Epstein and Charles Robinson discuss the blockbuster trade involving the star wide receiver and if Houston is the right situation for him. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JORI EPSTEIN: Do you think it’s more likely that Steph brings the receivers with him or feels like he’s competing with them and is not happy with how that competition and target share ends up?
CHARLES ROBINSON: So far, DeMeco Ryans has gone in there, and as a head coach, every player has been receptive to him. He’s worked really well with a wide array of different personalities inside the Texans, and I think that matters. I think that DeMeco Ryans’ personality matters, and what he brings to the table matters.
JASON FITZ: I will, at least, point out, too, guys. There’s one person that the Texans can ask about all of this, and it’s Danielle Hunter. And they sign him in free agency from the Vikings. He was the teammate of Stefon’s in Minnesota for several years. So if he was a bad teammate, if there was a bad experience, I would think they could go to him.
That being said, I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a second. And just taking what you guys have said and the questions we have, if you’ve got a young quarterback and a young team that’s ascending at this level, and then you’re bringing in a player that two teams have said, nah, we’re good– essentially let him walk for cents on the dollar or taken salary-cap hits to just get him out of the building– are we, at least– are we underselling the issue that is part of the locker-room culture that is going to now be part of a young locker room with the Texans? To me, if the Vikings walked away from him and the Bills walk away from him, and they’re both teams that needed him at that time, that has to say something, no?
CHARLES ROBINSON: OK, but what if he was right? What if he was right about Buffalo, OK? What if he was right to be frustrated?
There were clearly problems with the offensive coordinator spot, right? You don’t fire a coordinator unless there are problems. There were clearly problems post Brian Daboll.
We had this conversation– it had nothing to do with Diggs– where we were like, what the hell is going on with Josh Allen? What about some of these risks that he’s taking? What about some of the hero ball aspects? They [? missed ?] Brian Daboll. We went through that whole conversation. It had nothing to do with Stefon Diggs at that time, right?
I think there were enough underlying problems in Buffalo over the expanse of time that he was there plus the frustration of, God, we can’t break through. We lose to Burrow. That is so disheartening. We lose to Mahomes. That’s so disheartening. And that those are ceilings that are not going to go away.
So I can’t look at just this and say, well, it’s all on Diggs. It’s just– OK, two teams have told us the same story. There probably were reasons for him to be frustrated there at times. Was it always handled great? Probably not.