The Ringer NFL Show - Stefon Diggs Traded to the Texans

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Nora, Steven, and Sheil react to the news of the Houston Texans acquiring All-Pro WR Stefon Diggs and what this trade does for the Texans and the Bills. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti, Sheil Kapadia, and Steven Ruiz Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year. My name is Ben Solac and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Danny Hypatts, and Craig Horleback. We cover trades, free agency, and the draft, which is, yeah, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, which includes which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are bad, and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. That is the Ringer NFL show. Search the Ringer NFL show on Spotify. Hello and welcome to a breaking news edition of the Ringer NFL show.

I am Nora Punciotti, and I am here with Stephen Ruiz and Shield Capadia. Because Stefan Diggs has been traded from the bills to the Houston Texans. Sheel, first of all, hello, it's great to see you. It's, you know, it's always challenging to have breaking news in the middle of a day. And then we spring into action. But the benefit is that I get to see some smiling faces that I do not normally get to see on NFL podcasts. I'll give you guys the compensation. So Stefan Deggs goes to the Texans in exchange for a 2025 second round pick.

So not this draft, but next year's draft, a second round pick going back to Buffalo. The bills also threw in a 2025 fifth and sixth rounder to get the deal done. So all the trade compensation is next year. But essentially, Stefan Diggs for a little less than a second round pick next year. I'll kick it off to you first. I mean, what is your top line thought on this trade? Top line thought is Texans can win the Super Bowl next year. I mean, legitimately.

And it's not just Diggs. I was pretty close to like, all right, if I'm going to pick a surprise team in the AFC. But now I look at the whole body of work in Houston. They have a good offensive line that was very injured last season. They have the quarterback. We all know they have the quarterback played out of his mind as a rookie. Stefan Diggs.

and I'm sure we'll get more into this, does not need to be what he was in Buffalo in Houston. I mean, Nico Collins is flat out a better player than Stefan Diggs right now. He's an ascending player. He's a younger player. And so now you're adding complimentary pieces, Nico Collins, Stefan Diggs,

tank Dell coming back from injury. Like they've still got depth at wide receiver. They've got a tight end. I think their offense is going to be outstanding. I think it's going to be a top five offense next year. And I think they're very well positioned. in the AFC, and I get it. And we can talk about some of the concerns about, well, do you really do this? Are we sure we're not getting out over our skis here? But when you have

the quarterback on the rookie contract, now's the time to be a little reckless. You know, you get mom and dad's credit card. Yes, go ahead. Go spend. The consequences aren't what they're going to be. When you're the adult paying the bill, you can afford to take those risks. And I like it. Go for it. Go try to win the Super Bowl in the next two to three years. They've definitely gone for it. So the Texans starting skill position players this upcoming season, they've really reshaped. It's Joe Mixing at running back, Diggs, Collins, Tank Dell, top three receivers, and then Dalton Schultz at tight end. I mean, Stephen, what do you think, factoring in whatever we figure the second-year leap could be from Stroud, what do you think fair expectations are for the Houston Texans offense already having been such a pleasant surprise last season?

Super Bowl is a little too rich for me. It's a little too rich for me. Seems like, come down here. Especially at the conference with Patrick Mahomes. This is what happens when you bought it with Solacacalach a lot. You feel like you just have to, you know, you got to go over the top with something big or you're going to get outshined.

So sorry, go ahead. No, no, I think they're going to win the next five Super Bowl. No. You look at the off-season additions and it's easy to get excited about these names. But are we getting the best version of Stefan Diggs? Are we getting the best version of Joe Mix? And are we getting the best version of DeNeal Hunter?

My concern is that you're going all in with players that other teams found expendable, and they found them expendable for a reason. I know we like to say, like, this is your window, the rookie contract quarterback, you have them. You can go wild. Like, what are the other examples in the past where that's actually worked out and where teams haven't come out with a flawed roster? But one example is Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. And Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback we've ever seen.

And that roster has been flawed for the last two years. we've celebrated Patrick Mahomes because he's won Super Bowls in spite of the fact of the weaknesses on their roster. I mean, I think the step on Dick Strait is smart and sensible, and I really think it fills a hole for them because one of the undercover things about their season last year was their dropback passing game kind of fell off in the second half of the year. It was really like the early down, play action, schemy stuff.

Stroud's production, like Stroud, it was great. His tape is legit. He is going to be a top. 10 quarterback for the next 10 years. He might be a top five quarterback as soon as next year. But his production was a little inflated by that scheme and by the fact that they got a lot of single high and that they ran the ball a bunch and they got teams to

commit numbers to the box. I think adding Diggs allows them to evolve their dropback passing game where they don't have to rely on defenses, you know, playing those structures. So I do think it helps them in the long run, but the question is, are you getting the best of Stephon Diggs? and will all these other moves that you've made that have helped elevate you into the spot

where Shields talking about you like the Super Bowl contender will they play well this year too? Do you feel like there will be a schematic shift in terms of relying more on that dropback passing game? Because as you said, it's not as though that offense, even though maybe there was some drop-off later in the year and they also got hit with injuries, it's not as though that offense was a weak point

or was deeply struggling. It does seem as though, and we can quibble with, you know, who the choices are, the compensation if these players are in their prime or not, it does seem as though doing something like this was a big priority for them this off-season. I would not have said that wide receivers

seemed like a position of need there, but they tried to get Keenan Allen earlier this off-season. Obviously, they make the trade for digs now. It seems like this was something that they really wanted to do do you think that they, I think what I'm asking is like, do they have proof of concept on needing to make a move like that and making the types of schematic adjustments that would stem from you put more resources into the players who contribute to your drop back passing game?

You want to use it a little bit more. Yeah, football is like such a complicated sport. Like even me saying that the drop- It really is a doozy, isn't it? Yeah. Even me saying the drop-back passing game fell off over the second half, like, The offensive line also got really injured over the second half, and maybe that has something to do with it.

You can't protect drop back passes, but you don't have an offensive line. But I do think what Diggs gives them is a guy that can win quick, a guy that can win in the quick game and can get open with a three-step slant on third and five. And I don't necessarily think they had that last year. Like even the receivers they have, even Nico Collins, I think, is better down the field.

I think that's when he's at his best. And if you don't have him running those routes now, and you don't have, like Tank Dell, profiles as like a slot receiver just based on body type, but he is a guy that affects the game downfield. So I think this gives Stroud a pressure release valve. I think that's the biggest that's the biggest things Diggs will bring to this offense. I don't, like I agree with Sheel. I don't think Diggs has to be at his best. I think he just has to bring that element. My question is, will Diggs be happy with that role? Because that's a question worth asking,

given how things have ended with his last two teams. And it's not necessarily a question that hasn't already been being asked in the lead-up to this taking place. I got to tell you both, I was, I'm surprised, chill that you started off with the Texans, even though it is interesting. And if there's a team here that can win the Super Bowl, I do think you point to Houston first.

My first takeaway from this move was just, man, Buffalo must have really wanted to get this guy out of the building. And I'm not saying that that's necessarily for good, reason. But this is a team with Josh Allen, a quarterback in a Super Bowl window that

is moving on for very little compensation and will carry a 31 million dead cap charge for Dick's next season while he plays for, you know, another AFC contending team. It is, according to ESPN stats and info, the highest known

dead cap charge for a wide receiver. And the bills now are going into a season where their number one receiver is Khalil Shakir right now. And obviously the offseason's not over. They'll presumably do something in the draft or maybe there's another move to come. But the motivation to just no longer have Stefan Diggs in that building, it seems like it must have been incredibly high.

And to me, and if you guys don't mind, I'm going to throw three things at you, three explanations for that at. at you and I want to hear what you think seems like the most valid because to me it's got to be one of these three things. One is that Buffalo knows something that Houston doesn't. And maybe that's that Diggs is going to be 31 this season. His last 100-yard receiving game was in week six. It's possible that they feel after, you know, seeing him day and day out in practice,

that his best days are behind him, and it's better to move on now and get something because they weren't anticipating him contributing in a serious way going forward. It's also could be something less along the lines of play on the field, but just the fact that there's always been a lot of drama with Stefan Diggs, and whether that's his fault or whether that's the fault of the scenario around him, Josh Allen felt like week in and week out,

getting questions about the relationship with him, Diggs, if Diggs was happy with his target share, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's possible that there's more behind the scenes that we don't know. So whether or not it's a on the field thing or just dealing with the personality thing, possibility one to me is that the bills just know something that Houston doesn't and they felt like, all right, we got to move on. Possibility two, I think, is sort of related to that, but it's that they feel that way, but it's not smart, that it's out of laziness, that it's out of an unwillingness,

to do the interpersonal work, work with a player, try to get him in the fold, try to repair the relationship and get the most out of someone who can still offer something to your football team. But front office is just going,

we are so sick of dealing with this and we're just going to choose to not, even if it's not an optimal choice. I think that's what it has to be almost, right? You have a third option, though? I have a third option. The third option is that they think their roster with or without digs

is not good enough to win a Super Bowl right now and that they're trying to do a mini rebuilt. Despite the fact that Josh Allen is still in his prime, they moved on, I mean, Diggs, Gabe Davis, Trey White, Jordan Poir, Mitch Morris, Leonard Floyd, either cut or moved on in free agency.

Not necessarily saying that those weren't reasonable moves, but that is a huge amount of the core, the veteran core that has defined the last several years of this Josh Allen era, that is not on this team anymore. And the cap is where it is. I mean, Josh Allen's contract, the cap hit is going to balloon to $60 million next year,

and they have a lot of work to do to figure out how to pay for everything. So I'm not necessarily saying that any of those individual moves were bad or not necessary, but where that leaves them is just you got to go find the replacements. but that would potentially explain a decision to move on for a receiver who's about to be 31, best days behind him. Yes, you take on a huge dead cap hit, but you're not paying him in the future and you're recognizing that they have to kind of undergo this mini rebuild despite the fact that they have a top five quarterback who's in his friend.

So that's one, two, three. Stephen, what do you like out of there? My answer is yes, yes, all of the above. Like, I think it starts with option two, though. I think, like, that was that forced them to have the discussion. And then they talked about the options one and three, and they decided, like, yeah, we might as well trade them now. I have a question. So you think the ultimate driving factor is just we are so sick and tired of dealing with Stefan Diggs that $31 million starts to seem.

That's what it is. Like, the 31 in Dead Million, it tells you everything you need to know. Like you don't give up Stefan Diggs and $31 million in dead cap that you could use this year if you wanted to for a second round pick. I mean, that's Mohammed Sanoo compensation. That's what the Patriots gave up for Mohammed Sanoo in a mid-season trade. They're getting Stefan Diggs. I have a question for you guys, which is kind of related. Maybe I should let She'll answer first.

But my question is if the O.C. change in the middle of the year doesn't happen is Stefan Diggs still on Buffalo's roster? Because it was after that change where he stopped getting targeted. he only had two touchdowns, or no, one touchdown after that change. He only had two games over 40 yards receiving after that change. That's when the talk about his target chair came up. So I do wonder if like that move kind of led to this. That was the first domino to leading to this trade.

I do wonder if it happens either way just because of all the names they've lost this season. It's very clear they were in need of a rebuild. But I do think like the attitude question comes up because of that because now that they do have to rebuild and all these veterans, and leaders are not in the locker room anymore. You don't want like Stefan Diggs complaining about Target share. You don't want that guy to be your leader in the locker room and teaching the young guys, like kind of how to how to be a pro.

Yeah. What do you think we're still in a Ken Dorsey world? Do you think any of this turns out differently? I don't think so, although I hadn't thought of that. So that is interesting. I mean, I'm not saying, no, it can't be the case. But that was I hadn't thought about it until Stephen just mentioned it. There was so much, I mean, we don't have to read between the lines a lot about

like, was Stefan Diggs happy? How was his relationship with Josh Allen? Were they managing the situation? I mean, Sean McDermott was, you know, I remember him whispering sweet nothings into Diggs's ear to like get him to chill on the side of. I mean, Diggs literally tweeted, what was it last night where someone said, you know, Stefan Dix is not as essential to Josh Allen being a great quarterback. And he said, you sure, question mark.

Like, obviously this has been going on and not just for one year for two years. And you look at the big run that Buffalo has had and it's kind of understandable. When you get that close and you think you're that good and you cannot get to the Super Bowl during that run that they had. I mean, they had great teams. I was one of the nerds given every metric. No, no, no, they're better than their record is. Trust, don't give up on the bills yet. I've yelled it on this podcast for like two years straight.

And so if I'm saying that and I have no connection to the bills, how are the actual bills players feeling about this fact that, oh my gosh, 13 seconds. And we can't get over the hump. And so I think that all built up. and I think it's pretty obvious that there was an issue there. Now, if it was just that, if he was 26 years old, if he was coming off a season in which he had 1,500 yards, then you're saying, no, no, no, we got to massage this situation. You don't just give up on a player like this,

but you have that. So I think the case for the Bills, and I know they're getting crushed, and I know I'm like just a constant Bills defender, so I'm playing to type here. But I think the case for the Bills is one that the vibes went from when they were first starting this run, I mean, they had the best vibes of any team in the NFL.

You just watched them. You're like, I love this team. They're so fun to what they've been last year, which is a team that had the like weight of the world on its shoulders and had been through so much and still couldn't get over the hump. And I think Diggs was kind of at the center of sort of that like, ooh, it's really turned here. Like he looks miserable all the time. And then the lack of production down the stretch.

I mean, there was this weird stretch, like a four-week stretch at the end of the season where he's playing like 65% of the snaps or less. And so Nora, to your point, which I always try to remind myself, all right, as much as we, like, love getting into every detail and trying to learn as much as we can, we're always at a little bit of an information deficit. And so why was that? Was there an injury thing? Was there something behind the scenes where it was kind of a punishment thing? Was it to Stevens point that the offensive coordinator saying he's not doing what? Like, it could be any number of those things. So if they look at it and say, hey, we need to reset a little bit here. We're getting rid of the core guys from the run. we just had Stefan Diggs entering his age 31 season, which by the way, I mean, if you look at the history of wide receivers 31 or older, like there aren't a lot of guys putting up big numbers. You're really counting on the exception.

It's really been like over the last five years. I want to say, Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins, Adam Thielin with that joke year last year, and Julian Edelman are the four guys who have had a thousand yards when they're age 31 or older. So when it goes, like I always say wide receiver and corner, I'm usually not touching guys who are 30 and old, and I'm the old guy on the pot, so I'm allowed to say that. So you add that in. You're right about the dead cat pit at the same time. If they kept him on the roster, I think it was like $28 million.

And so you move on from him, it's $31 million. It's still a big deal, but you're also not paying him in cash. It would have been $18.5 million in cash. So now you have that cash freed up. And the last thing I'll say is, I refuse to believe that the debt chart we're looking at now is the debt chart they're going into September with. This is a soft reset. When you have Josh Allen on your team, you cannot go into his season with him and his prime,

with the wide receivers they currently have on the roster. So I think there's going to be another shooter drop. We can get into what that might be. But I'm just like there's got to be. There's more to it. I feel like they got to have some kind of plan to add to this wide receiver room before they play the game. So let's get into that.

I mean, what do you think? Because I agree with you. They can't go into with a quarterback. Josh Allen, even if this is a little bit of a reset moment, if you've got Josh Allen, that guy's arm, that's your quarterback. I mean, it's just malpractice if they sent this wide receiver room into 2024. Ready for this? Brandon Ayuk for 28, who says no?

The 49ers say no. I think the 49ers, yeah. 28th is a little late in the first round. That's the only reason. First round pick. One first round pick gets it done, but I don't know about the 28th. But it's, it's interesting. It's interesting.

The only thing that I would get to, 28 and a third next year. Who says no? Nobody does at that point. I think that that's a done deal. Maybe something like that. So then add Brandon Ayuk to this wide receiver room. You feel like that's, that's worthy of making another run? No, it still stands here.

That's my problem is just like this roster had gotten so old. And they really, I mean, where I feel like this lands them. And 28 is not where I would want to be in this first round if I wanted to get a high impact wide receiver out of the draft. So that definitely contributes to the idea of trying to swing a trade for an IUC or someone like that. And it's definitely interesting. That said, I just, I feel. And I don't want to. don't want to totally kill the bills for this move, even though it does seem like the compensation

is really, really underwhelming. But again, like we've been talking about, they, they, you know, know a little bit more about what's going on behind the scenes and, and Diggs, I do think his, best days as a player are behind him. So you can sort of see, you can see the logic on some level. That said, the way that I really feel is that if in two, three years from now we're talking about the bills, maybe finally making it to a Super Bowl in this era, getting over that hot, maybe, you know, God forbid, maybe they win one. I think what we will be talking about and what all the, you know, post-game stories are going to start with is that they absolutely nailed a draft in the moment that they had to. I think the pressure on the next couple of bills drafts has just gotten to

be immense because they've had all of these older players cycle out and it's just not clear to me who has cycled in. And now, Brandon Ayuk is a young player, obviously, that's someone who you can add and who's going to be part of your core for the long term, hopefully. But I just, I don't like the bills giving up draft capital in this moment because I think if they're going to have a real chance to continue this run and give Josh Allen the infrastructure that that maximizes his abilities, they got to start hitting some of these draft picks. I mean, they've got to start drafting and developing their own players because, and I say that knowing that the draft really is a crapshoot and it's hard to beat it. It's hard to outperform expectations. But sometimes

teams get lucky and sometimes they extend and augment windows that way. And I just, I feel like that's the position that Buffalo is in right now where they just absolutely have to do that. If this is going to work out in a positive way. Two things on the Stefan Diggs-washed conversation. First of all, Sheel, you never have to justify ageism with the dual threat crew. We are pro-Ageism podcast here. And honestly, that's the one. We're the Renee Rapp of Football Podcasts.

That's right. And then I will say this. I have a next-gen stat for you guys. In week 17, Stefan Diggs ran 21 miles per hour. It was the fastest time he's run during his time with the Buffalo Bill. So that was week 17 in December in a cold game. I watched the tape, and I know the numbers say that he's been bad. That man is open a lot, and Josh Allen was doing, God knows what, when he was open.

I think Sevon Diggs is going to have a better year with C.J. Shrout. C.J. Shroud is not a better quarterback than Josh Allen. I'm not saying that. It's not even close. But I think he could have a better year with Stroud when you account for what his role will be, now that he's part of like a three-headed monster rather than being the guy. My concern with like an IUC train if it happens is that they're right back to where they were. Like that's what we were talking about with this receiving court last year is like, oh yes, they have digs.

They have the number one guy, but they have nothing else. They don't have a reliable second guy like Gabe Davis was productive, but he wasn't reliable. And even if he was, he's not there anymore. Yeah. And are you selling me on Curtis Samuel being that guy? Like I'm not buying that. And my question would be, does this move get them closer to a Super Bowl? And the answer to me is no.

But at the same time, like all the other moves that preceded this, that kind of forced their hand, I don't think we should be killing the bills for like this trade. I think they got the best of what they could out of it. I think we should be killing them for not realizing that they needed to refresh the roster, to reset the roster last off season and trying to run it back and go in to the last season with the same flawed roster they tried it with the year before. When there were signs that this team was still a piece or two,

a significant piece or two away from really challenging for a Super Bowl. I also, I'm not sure we should be killing the bills for this, but I'm still of the mind that there's a real possibility that frustration boils over

and you just feel, you know, you let sunk cost fallacy take hold and just go, I don't want to deal with this guy anymore, so let's get him out of there. Instead of saying, hey, we run this organization, and we should be able to run it well enough so that if we're getting a lot of rookies in and we're trying to kind of reset, we should be confident in our own ability to set a tone

and to not have someone whose mercurial personality is going to carry over and, you know, infect younger players and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think that is really common thinking in front offices, but I think it's lazy and I think it's because they're unwilling to sit down and talk to players like they're here. human beings and have real conversations and try to get to the bottom of some of the stuff that's not X's and O's, but it has to do with how people feel about their job performance. I'm not saying that I think that that's, you know, anything particular to the bills. I just think that football teams do stuff like that all the time.

So to say that, you know, the money when you factor in what they would have had to pay him versus the cap hit, it's not that different. You're just making up for the fact that you don't have him on the roster anymore. if they are balancing that out between on-field contribution and off-field headache, I can't say I totally trust them to be balancing that in the way that I think would be optimal in terms of helping the roster overall win games. So I just don't want to let them totally off the hook there. But I do think that it's probably more defensible than it's being made out to be in general

when you just see the dead cap number, how little they got in return, the just sort of name recognition of a Stefan Diggs. Oh, my God, they got Stefan Diggs for, you know, less than a second round pick, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I still, I look a little side-eyed at the bills for this one. Yeah, so for the record, we're not killing the bills. We're just reading their eulogy.

We're just at the funeral reading the eulogy. I am not. I'll be back on here, defendant. They'll make another move, and I will say, you know what, They're going to be fine. They have a good offensive line. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. And they have a coach who took a roster of misfits and the most injured defense last year.

And they were like the top 15 deep. Like they were mediocre competent. He did to, again, I'm just playing to type more with less with that group. It was like one of the best, more with less performances with the defense of any coach last year. So I, you know, like, you can point to all the mistake. They made mistakes. There's no doubt about it. They extended Stefan Diggs in 2022 when they didn't have to to try to massage the situation.

And it ended up screwing them. And that happens sometimes when you're in a window. You're like, we want player to be happy. It could end up backfiring. It did backfire. The Von Miller signing looks like one of the worst free agent signings in recent memory. I was going to say history. I don't know.

It might be history. When you look at his production and what they paid him, that's been a disaster. And then, Nora, you're right with the draft stuff. I just, I don't know. I think we analyze all these little things with rosters and construction and position groups. And I'm like, you know what? What's the floor of a team that has Josh Allen and his prime playing quarterback and Sean McDermott coaching the defense? I think it's still going to be like nine wins is going to be the floor.

And if they trade for a Brandon Ayukle, I hear what you're saying. Yes, they could have used more guys. They still had like a very good offense last year with Stefan Diggs declining in the second half of the season and like nobody else, Gabe Davis doing nothing. Like if you give me Brandon Iuke, Dalton Kincaid, that offensive line, Josh Allen, and complimentary pieces, I'm feeling much better about them than any other team in the AFC East. I'm sorry.

I still feel like they're going to be in the driver's seat there. I'd like to thank Shield for bringing back some great memories back to the glory days in 2016 when I thought the same thing about the Panthers. I was convincing myself all that. We got the quarterback. We got a great offense line. We got Sean McDermit. We're going to be fine.

be fine. My short term memory is not good. We got Brandon Bean in the front office. Everything's going to be fine. I know. Your point, though, Ruiz, about Diggs.

I think that was, like, I didn't know that about the speed thing. That's pretty interesting. So was he just like, all right, how motivated is Stefan Diggs this particular week? But I do think there is this thought that, like,

he was a complete, is it like, he had 11803 yards last year. And I know everyone was after week six. Well, the first six weeks do count. Like, it's the entire season.

He had 11, 183, 11801, 183 yards. And again, now he doesn't need to have that. Like if he has 800 yards and is like a go-to guy, like you mentioned, getting the ball out quickly, getting open quickly for that team, like that's probably, you know, still going to be a good situation for the Texas. And that's like the price they pay. They didn't pay the price of like a number one all-star receiver.

They pay the price for like that type of role. It's a second round pick. Yeah. Who wins more games next season? The Texans are the Bills. Shield, Bill's defender. Going to you first. I mean, I did open the pod by saying the Texans can win the Super Bowl.

So, uh, AFC title game matchup. Yeah, I think you just said that the bills might win nine games, which to me and the Josh Allen, that's the floor for me. I think they're going to be better. I'll probably be picking the bills to win 11 games. I'll probably be picking the Texans to win 11 games. I think, now, all right, if I had to pick one, who's going to win more games next year?

I will probably say the Texans. I haven't looked at schedule and all that other stuff, but I do feel really good about the Texans. I think these are going to be two of the better teams in the AFC. Maybe I'm delusional with my bills glasses on. But as of today, what's today? April 3rd, I think both these teams are playing on the second week in the divisional round of the AFC next year.

Predictions don't count in April. So who can say, you can say whatever. Unless they're right, then you come back to them and say, that's what I said in April. That's a good point. I'll take the Texans, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the bills. I think both of these teams hover around 10 wins. I don't think the Texans are in for the leap that a lot of people think.

I think there are a lot of question marks about that team. And I don't know if this offense, like we can picture what the offense could be on paper. I just don't know if that's going to be the offense we see in like October and November. There are a lot of question marks about their capacity to stay healthy. Joe Mixon is an older running back. Stefan Diggs is a wide receiver on the wrong side of 30. Tank Dell got injured last year and he's undersized. The offensive line hasn't been able to stay healthy for a couple of years now.

So there are a lot of questions. And like it's you kind of kill the vibe when you bring up injuries. And that's a concern for any team. Injuries will kill any team. But with that team, like injured teams tend to stay injured. So that would be my question mark. And then on defense, there was a lot of turnover. I know they kind of upgraded the roster, but there was a lot of turnover.

And it wasn't like that was the greatest defense we saw last year. There's a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the ball. And I don't think we could just take it for granted just because they have a second year quarterback. Yeah, I'm with you on. Like I want to make sure I'm clear. Like I didn't love necessarily the Texans off season. Like some of those moves that they made, like I liked Grenard. I'm like, why are you getting rid of Grenard, the younger player for less money than bringing in Daniel Hunter?

Like the mixing thing, you trade for him and then you extend him. I was like, I don't know that you want to necessarily be doing that. So I actually do not. I'm not like, oh, my gosh, the Texans crushed it this offseason with every move they make. I do think that the digs move while there is some risk to it, which we went over. That's a move I would have made because your point. I think we need to remember this is a 20, 25 second round pick that they're giving up. And digs, his contract, he's got one year guaranteed money.

Like if this doesn't work out, you can get off this in a year with no pain. So that's a move. I would have taken a swing on because I'm. with you. I think you'd get a motivated player in Diggs in Houston, you know, who's like, I'm not washed and, you know, they weren't throwing me the ball last year. Now I'm going to come in with this guy, this youngest sending quarterback, kind of like the early days of him and Josh Allen. That was fun to watch. It's not going to look exactly like that because this is a different version of Diggs, but I still think he can be very productive.

So I like that move. I don't love the whole off season, but I put it all together with the offensive line coming back healthy, Nico Collins and how much I love Stroud. And I'm, I'm in on them for for 2024. I'm in on them too. I'd take the Texans there as well. I'm, I'm normally, Sheal, I'm normally with you. I'm normally a Bill's defender.

I do not understand the ongoing conversation about their Super Bowl window closing. Like, Josh Allen, to me, makes that a completely, like, it's just an inscrutable conversation to me. I don't understand why it continues to be this talking point.

He's under contract through 2028. He'll be 31 years old then. I mean, he's a physical player. I still think he should be just fine until then, barring some catastrophic injury. I think the Super Bowl window is wide open there and will be open for a long time. That said, I just think that this is going to be,

this to me looks like one of the worst rosters that they've had since that initial reset when they brought him in. And there's still time for them to change it. But to me, the cupboard looks pretty bare. So if the, and I agree with you,

I think the floor is somewhere around, you know, eight, nine wins when you've got a quarterback like Josh Allen and have the track record that they do of being able to be creative offensively, find ways to work it out. But I just think that they have a little bit less around him.

than we've really seen in these years when they've been successful. So feel pretty good about the bills long term. I don't think the sky is falling there anywhere near as much as it gets painted to be. That said, 2024 outlook after this offseason, to me it just feels like,

you know, remember when we did functions in math class in like elementary school and you have the in and then you have the out? Just seems like there's a lot more going out than going in. No doubt. Right now. So I worry about that for next season.

It sounds like your math classes were more advanced than mine. I was doing like two plus two. I was like, maybe like ninth grade. Yeah, there was something going on. You did it. You do the little function diagram where it's like, da-da-da-da. No, I was doing that in, yeah, 11th grade.

High school. Definitely high school. When I was my first high school math class was geometry. And on my first test, I got like, and I got pretty good grades in school, but I got a 42. on my first test. And that was like,

talk about this guy was falling. I was like really, really thrown. And I had this absolute, he was brilliant and a really good guy of an absolute hard-ass geometry teacher

who said, just think about it this way. People who do geometry go on to be engineers and they build bridges. And if you built a bridge this poorly, people would die.

So it's not that bad that you failed to test. To his credit, you are podcasting about football, right now. Yep, yep, yep, geometry was not in my future. But functions, I did have functions on luck.

And we can use that to explain the Buffalo Bills. Anything else we're missing here, guys? I think we've just about covered it with this trade. But Stephen, any final thoughts on Stefan Diggs, Houston Texan? No other thoughts, but I did want to bring up the comment that Brandon Bean made last year

where he was like, we don't want to suck enough to be able to draft a job. Jamar Chase. Welcome to that world, buddy. That's a good point. That's a good point. That's the life comes at your vest. Shield, parting thoughts? No, I think I, like, I want to see what the Bill's roster looks like on September 1st. Like, right now, it is just hard for me to envision because I know Brandon Bean when he got there. It was a great rebuilding job. And he was like, I need to surround the young quarterback with good pieces. And like, that doesn't just leave your hand. So I just feel like there's going to be another move they make. I could be wrong. If they, if they go into the

season with this group of fast catchers, I reserve the right to change my tune on the Buffalo Bills. Do you guys know that Brandon Bean has a lot of animals? Like, he has like farm animals. I learned this at the league meetings a couple weeks ago. Like, I think he's got some goats. Does he have a farm or just the animals? I think I think, not like a working farm, but I think it sounded like he had a lot of, you know,

a lot of space. It's a we built a zoo situation. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Interesting. Anyway. How's that for some minute 35 podcasting? All right.

Shil Kabadio and Stephen Ruiz. Thank you so much for hopping on this breaking news episode of the Ringer NFL show. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo and Kare Givens for their work on socials and video for this episode. Thank you to Stefan Anderson for producing. Thank you to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal for their additional production supervision. Sheal and Ben will be back with extra point taken next week. Thank you for listening.

Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandle is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fandle.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 100 next step or text next step to 533, 4,2 in Arizona, 1-888-78, 789, 770. or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut, 1-8009 with it in Indiana. Call 1-800-522-470-7-0 or visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 18777-7-0 stop in Louisiana. Visit MD-Gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-5-2-4-7-0 in Wyoming.

Hope is here. Visit Gambling helpline, MA.org or call 800-3-327-50-5-0-5-0-4. for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 18778-8 Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y in New York.