The Buffalo Bills wanted to get rid of Stefon Diggs badly, so much so that they were willing to spend $30 million in cap space to ship him to the Houston Texans. Diggs has often personified himself as a bit of a diva wide receiver, and even though he was the beneficiary of playing for one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, Josh Allen, their relationship was never what it was mucked up to be.
And those rumors of tension between Diggs and the Bills — and Allen, for that matter — spilled over onto Pro Football Talk Live on Peacock Thursday, sparking a heated debate between Mike Florio and Chris Simms.
Florio ignited the back-and-forth by making inferences about Allen’s leadership (or lack thereof), allowing Diggs to dominate their on-field and off-the-field dynamic. He pointed to Allen’s unwavering public support of Diggs, even during questionable moments, as proof of this imbalance.
“We’ve seen Josh Allen talk about it,” Florio began. “Josh Allen always has his back. There’s never been a hint of any effort, frustration, or attempt by Josh Allen to take over that relationship. That relationship was dominated by Stefon Diggs. As long as Diggs got what he wanted, everything was fine. And Josh Allen never pushed back at this disrespect that we saw from time to time.”
Simms disagreed, suggesting players would never criticize teammates in a press conference. He then turned the tables on Florio, implying that Florio himself would have harshly criticized Allen if the quarterback had dared to publicly criticize Diggs during the 2023 season.
“I’m just telling you nobody is going to call out a player at a postgame press conference,” Simms said. “If he did that, you’d say he’s a bad leader, Mike. We’ve never heard anyone say that type of stuff.”
That’s when the fireworks started.
Things got HEATED between Florio & Simms when discussing the relationship between Josh Allen & Stefon Diggs. pic.twitter.com/UhOL9Gfsk9
— Z-Bot (@ZbotTweets) April 4, 2024
That’s when the conversation devolved into a volley of interruptions as the two tried to argue with one another while also somehow bringing Aaron Rodgers into the fold.
Finally, Florio threw up his hands and said, “Go ahead, you talk ’til the break. I won’t say anything more. Go ahead; you go.”
Simms, unsurprisingly, couldn’t resist a jab at Florio’s outburst.
“Okay, be a baby,” Simms said. “That’s right. You’re being a ****** baby. You talked a lot. Get out of here. Shut up, you baby. Get out of here.”
The fiery exchange between Simms and Florio over Allen and Diggs’ rapport makes one wonder about the intensity of the actual relationship troubles. The Bills had to absorb a staggering dead cap hit just to ship Diggs out of Buffalo, only further highlighting the acrimony behind the scenes.
But the only acrimony we saw here was Simms calling Florio “a baby.”
Perhaps he’ll get shipped to Houston next.
[Z-Bot on X]