Former Vikings star mysteriously being phased out of Bills offense

Former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs has seen a significant drop in his offensive involvement recently with the Buffalo Bills.

Heading into Week 18, Buffalo Bills receiver Stefon Diggs is on track to finish with his fewest receiving yards in a single season since his final year with the Minnesota Vikings in 2019.

In 16 games this season, Diggs has hauled in 100 passes for 1,096 yards and eight touchdowns. These are all still very respectable numbers, but when looking at his production during Buffalo's last few games, it doesn't match what we've typically seen from the All-Pro wide receiver since he parted with the Vikings in 2020.

Since Week 10, Diggs has averaged four catches and 37 receiving yards per game, and he's only found the end zone once. To get a better idea of how drastically low these numbers are for the veteran pass-catcher, if this was his pace for an entire 17-game season, he would finish with less than 640 total receiving yards.

Have the Buffalo Bills been phasing former Minnesota Vikings WR Stefon Diggs out of their offense?

According to The Athletic's Tim Graham, Diggs has claimed his recent decline in production has been due to opposing teams double-teaming him.

However, opposing defenders themselves have actually disputed this claim, and Graham pointed out that the former Minnesota receiver has been on the field for less than 60 percent of the Bills' offensive snaps during the team's last three games.

So what's going on with Diggs? Is he dealing with an injury, or is Buffalo actually using him less in their offense during the last few weeks on purpose?

Coincidentally, Diggs' numbers have experienced a steep decline this season ever since the Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and replaced him with Joe Brady. The change has obviously had an impact on the receiver's production, even if Buffalo denies that it has.

At the same time, the Bills are 5-1 with Brady as their offensive coordinator this season, much better than the 5-5 record they had with Dorsey calling their plays in 2023. So, whatever Buffalo has been doing differently since the offensive coordinator change has clearly been working.

The question is, how long will Diggs be okay with his diminished role? Speaking from experience, Vikings fans can probably guess how this will end.