Minnesota Vikings star receiver Stefon Diggs has missed the first two days of OTAs, but the team isn’t concerned about it.
The current offseason for the Minnesota Vikings has had plenty of interesting turns as they have done their best to add pieces to a team that just missed the playoffs last year.
Just to get to the offseason team activities that began on Tuesday, the team has had to do plenty of financial gymnastics and they have had several soap operas that have begun to unfold because of them.
While many are fixated on the drama that surrounds tight end Kyle Rudolph, another interesting storyline could be the status of wide receiver Stefon Diggs after missing the first two days of OTAs. Despite signing a five-year, $72 million contract extension prior to last season, there is still some uncertainty thanks to an odd paranoia that he’s heading to (or wants to head to) the Washington Redskins.
Earlier this offseason, eyebrows were raised when Diggs’ brother, Trevon, posted a picture of the Vikings receiver in a Redskins jersey on his Instagram account. As Twitter quickly melted down about it, Trevon took the picture down shortly after making the post.
Perhaps that was just a younger brother wishing his older brother could play closer to his hometown of Gaithersburg, Maryland. But things got weirder when Diggs went to work out with new Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr.
After an offseason workout that literally every wide receiver in the league does with opposing quarterbacks, Haskins salivated at the thought of playing with Diggs, which in turn also left the entire Redskins fan base drooling at the thought of their favorite team acquiring the 25-year old wideout.
As the second day of Minnesota’s OTAs came and went on Wednesday without the talented receiver making an appearance, murmurs started to spread throughout TCO Performance Center. But these were quickly shot down by Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, who simply said, “no,” when asked if he was concerned about Diggs’ absence.
To further drive the point home that there’s little concern, Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins also said on Wednesday that he was looking forward to getting Diggs back on the practice field on Thursday.
The fact is that Diggs is still under contract with the Vikings for the next five seasons and it’s one that he just recently signed. If Minnesota wanted to trade him to Washington for some reason, they would incur a $3 million penalty in 2019 and a $9 million penalty in 2020 if they deal him after June 1.
Such a scenario is asinine considering that the team has already put the high-priced extensions of Anthony Barr and Adam Thielen on a credit card in 2019 with massive roster bonuses coming next year, they’ve already cut two starters (Mike Remmers and Andrew Sendejo), and they are looking to renegotiate with another (Rudolph) just to create more salary cap space by training camp.
Long story short, if Diggs walks into the voluntary OTA practice tomorrow, it might calm the fears of some. But there’s really nothing to fear to begin with.