It would seem the Buffalo Bills have reached an impasse with Stefon Diggs that typically ends in a trade. The former All-Pro wide receiver is not in attendance at minicamp after meeting with general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The question now becomes whether or not the Buffalo Bills could even trade Stefon Diggs if that is ultimately what he is looking for. The Bills just signed Diggs to a four-year, $96 million extension last offseason that made him one of the highest paid players at his position.
Then this offseason, the Bills restructured his contract that converted his salary to bonus that created over $5 million in cap space.
If Buffalo Bills trading Stefon Diggs creates too much dead cap in 2024
The issue is that with the restructure the Bills did this offseason it spreads out that bonus over the future years of the contract. That bonus becomes dead cap if the Bills were to trade Stefon Diggs and would result in dead cap of $13.2 million this year and $31 million in dead cap next offseason, according to Spotrac.
That figure makes any type of a trade almost impossible as the Buffalo Bills are likely to have limited cap space next offseason.
If Stefon Diggs is made available, he certainly would have plenty of teams interested in trading for him. There is the possibility that the Bills may get creative in terms of how they structure the trade where teams could take on some of that contract but ultimately that is not the first option.
The first option for the Buffalo Bills should be to exhaust all possible avenues to bring Stefon Diggs back. He is a key part of this offense and the team's Super Bowl chances that trading him would drastically change the outlook for this upcoming season.