Bills send harsh message to Stefon Diggs with Chase Claypool move

What a dig at Stefon Diggs! He has not even played a down for the Houston Texans, and his former team, the Buffalo Bills, has already given his No. 14 jersey out to somebody else. Yes, incoming wide receiver Chase Claypool will rock the No. 14 in Orchard Park for the time being. While Diggs was not even close to approaching Jim Kelly territory in Bills lore, Claypool cannot stick with a team, man.

The Bills' offseason has been strange to say the least. Trading away Diggs to a team they will be competing for playoff positioning with in Houston does not sit well with me. Trading back twice to take Keon Coleman out of Florida State at No. 33 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft could come back to haunt them. All the while, the Bills' Super Bowl window has closed, and nobody seems to realize this.

Claypool has been on more teams that Josh McCown at this point, or it at least feels like it. So far in his half-decade career out of Notre Dame, he has played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins and now is on the Bills' roster. While he may find the fountain of youth in Western New York, that could just be the ominous cataracts we call Niagra Falls. It is a long way down from the top!

Here are the uniform changes for the Bills: Claypool, Deion Jones, Dawuane Smoot and Taylor Rapp.

While numbers are not sacred in the NFL, you would have thought Diggs would have deserved better.

Buffalo Bills give Stefon Diggs' jersey number away almost immediately

Although Diggs gave the Bills legitimacy in his rapport with Josh Allen, all we got out of this connection was one trip to the AFC Championship, and that was during COVID. Buffalo is arguably the best team in the NFL that hasn't won a Super Bowl with its core yet, although teams like the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers would all beg to differ.

You see what I am getting at, right? Buffalo has to prove something to us this season. The Bills should no longer be given the benefit of the doubt because we like Josh Allen and love their fans. Does this metroplex deserve to see a championship? Oh, absolutely! But I am just not counting on it. All these distractions over the last several months are just getting in the way of what really matters: Winning!

My hope for the Bills is Coleman becomes their bona fide No. 1 almost immediately, and that it will be addition by subtraction by having Diggs out of the building. Football is all about timing and chemistry. I trust that the Bills have put in the work and preparation for luck to finally one day be on their side. However, I question if they have the right cooks in the kitchen. Their sizzle is better than the steak...

By adding a little dollop of Mapletron to the mix, perhaps the Bills can come out of the AFC in 2024?