Our favorite uncomfortable national media reactions to Houston Texans trading for Stefon Diggs
THIS IS WILD
04 April
THIS IS WILD
After the Houston Texans traded for Bills receiver Stefon Diggs on Wednesday, news of the deal caught like wildfire and was a main topic of discussion on shows like Undisputed, First Take, The Herd, and countless others.
For the most part, everyone was very positive about the trade from the Texans perspective. In fact, Vegas updated the Texans and Bills' odds for the 2024 season.
Before the trade the Texans odds of winning the Super Bowl were 25-to-1 (+2500). Now, the Texans odds have shifted to 15-to-1 (+1500). Clearly, the addition of Diggs improved the Texans' chances of winning it all in 2024.
The Bills on the other hand are going the other direction. The Bills' chances of winning the big game have decreased a bit. Before the trade they were at 12-to-1 (+1200), and after the trade, 14-to-1 (+1400).
The Texans odds are now around sixth-best to win the championship, right around the Dallas Cowboys. Which brings us to Skip Bayless' show, Undisputed.
Skip (a Cowboys superfan) and Keyshawn Johnson debated whether the Cowboys or Texans have the best team. And it wasn't much of a debate. Bayless shockingly conceded to Keyshawn that the Texans have the better squad heading into the season. Skip is a Houston hater, so saying that must have really hurt.
Which is quite the contrast from Colin Cowherd, who didn't even have the Texans making the playoffs before the Diggs trade. And even after the Diggs trade, Cowherd mostly ignored the Texans side of the trade, and focused on the Bills. Some things never change with Cowherd.
He gave the Texans some love once CJ Stroud was taking the league by storm, but he was very dismissive of Stroud and the Texans before and after the season. Cowherd thinks the team will take a step back due to their first place schedule in 2024.
How did this deal come about?
Adam Schefter revealed on The Stephen A. Smith Show that the Texans initiated the trade with the Vikings, not the other way around. The popular opinion was the Vikings wanted a second first-round pick that would help them trade up for a quarterback in the draft. But that's not the case, according to Schefter.
It seems GM Nick Caserio was interested in turning the Texans' 2024 first-round pick into two second-rounders. Which indicates the Texans were looking to add a receiver, but needed an extra second-round pick to do so.
Which is good news, Houston had a plan, and they executed it after the trade for Keenan Allen fell through (the Chargers preferred to send Allen to the NFC, and he is now a Chicago Bear).
How will they use Diggs?
Many people believe Diggs will play outside with Tank Dell taking over as the slot receiver. But based on the slot percentage of all the Texans receivers, that may not be the case.
2023 slot percentage
Robert Woods 57%
Noah Brown 39%
Stefon Diggs with Buffalo 36%
Tank Dell 29%
Nico Collins 20%
As you can see from the numbers above, Dell wasn't in the slot all that much. Perhaps the Texans have plans to use Diggs on the inside based on these numbers, and their failed attempt at landing Keenan Allen. Rotating both Dell and Diggs in the slot could also be an option.
Be sure to check out the video above for the full discussion, and to learn how the Diggs trade altered Stroud and Allen's MVP chances!
There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.
The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.
“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”
That approach seems to be working.
For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.
“We've kept our standards pretty high,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And we keep it going.”
The Cavs are just one of the surprise stories that have emerged as the season nears the one-third-done mark. Orlando — the only team still unbeaten at home — is off to its best start in 16 years at 17-9 and having done most of that without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. And Houston is 16-8, behind only the Cavs, Boston, Oklahoma City and Memphis so far in the race for the league's best record.
Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.
“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”
A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.
“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.
They're taking notice of Orlando as well. The Magic lost their best player and haven't skipped a beat.
Banchero's injury after five games figured to doom Orlando for a while, and the Magic went 0-4 immediately after he tore his oblique. Entering Tuesday, they're 14-3 since — and now have to regroup yet again. Franz Wagner stepped into the best-player-on-team role when Banchero got hurt, and now Wagner is going to miss several weeks with the exact same injury.
Ask Magic coach Jamahl Mosley how the team has persevered, and he'll quickly credit everyone but himself. Around the league, it's Mosley getting a ton of the credit — and rightly so — for what Orlando is doing.
“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”
The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.
Atkinson was brought in by Cleveland to try and turn good into great. The job isn't anywhere near finished — nobody is raising any banners for “best record after 25 games” — but Atkinson realized fairly early that this Cavs team has serious potential.
“We’re so caught up in like the process of improve, improve, improve each game, improve each practice," Atkinson said. “That’s kind of my philosophy. But then you hit 10-0, and obviously the media starts talking and all that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this could be something special brewing here.’”