Diggs' decline raises concerns as other players step up in Bills' passing attack

At the beginning of the year, fans said the Bills needed other weapons. Someone besides Stefon Diggs to step up. Since then, Dalton Kincaid, Khalil Shakir and now James Cook have all had larger roles in the Bills passing attack. The problem now? Well, Diggs seems to have disappeared, and to make matters worse, we only get an occasional sighting from Gabe Davis.

In the first six games of this season, Diggs recorded 49 receptions on 66 targets with 620 yards and five touchdowns. In the last seven games, he's got 38 receptions, 373 yards, and three touchdowns on the same number of targets, 66. He also leads the team with six drops, including two in the Kansas City game. Dawson Knox is next with four, followed by Gabe Davis with three. I'm not sure what is going on, but I hope he gets rolling again soon because this team needs its star wide receiver making plays.

Further showing a decline is Diggs' Pro Football Focus grades this season. His overall of 79.3 is solid; however, over the last seven games, he's been given a PFF grade below 65 in four of them. In those first six games, his lowest grade was 66.4 in week two of the season. Diggs also has a career catch rate percentage of 68.7 percent and this year he's currently sitting at 65.9 percent, third lowest season of his career.

I've heard some folks make comments about Diggs struggling to gain separation, other fans have commented about his body language and wonder if there is an injury that he's fighting through. I'm not in the locker room and I don't have Diggs on speed dial but it seems something is going on. Coach McDermott said during his press conference when asked about the decline in Diggs production, that defenses are focusing their game planning on Diggs.

About the time we started to see Diggs decline in production, we're seeing Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir coming on and contributing in big ways to the Bills offense. Since the start of Joe Brady's tenure as the offensive coordinator, we're also seeing James Cook become a bigger part of the Bills passing attack. During that same final seven games, Josh Allen has thrown for 233 yards or more in all but one of those. My point, Allen and this passing game are still moving, and still effective, so defenses may be forced to begin changing how they defend Diggs. It's only a matter of time before Diggs goes off again and helps carry this team into the playoffs.

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