Wide receiver Stefon Diggs is still a member of the Houston Texans, for now. The issue for the Texans is that we're quickly approaching the start of the 2025 NFL free agency period.
At 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 12th, Diggs will become a free agent. He'll get to test the market and potentially leave Houston, and Garrett Podell of CBS Sports thinks he may likely have one thing in mind. Podell ranks Diggs as the fourth-best free agent wideout on the 2025 market, but at this stage of his career, he thinks the former fifth-round pick from Maryland is going to be chasing money.
"At this stage of Diggs' career, he may just want to chase the biggest check that would involve a high number of targets," Podell wrote in his breakdown of Diggs.
Looking at it from the perspective of the Texans, that's not great news. The Texans need to build a strong offense with a new offensive coordinator in town in Nick Caley. We're heading into quarterback C.J. Stroud's third season and the more weapons around him the better. He's a great young quarterback, but even great young quarterbacks need help and right now Houston's only reliable option is Nico Collins.
Watching a wideout as good as Diggs has been in his career leave town is not conducive to the above goal of building a strong offense. Yes, he's 31 and coming off an ACL tear that he suffered in Week Eight of the 2024 season, but this is still Stefon Diggs we're talking about.
Taking out the 2024 season, he had six 1,000-plus yard receiving seasons in a row. He could still be a great weapon for the Texans if they're able to bring him back on a "hometown discount".
If Diggs is chasing a check, though, the Texans have little they can give him by way of cap space for 2025. That's not to say they can't backload a contract and add a few void years to make it work, but Houston is entering free agency with just $4.9 million in cap space. According to Spotrac, Diggs' market value is $13.4 million for a one-year deal.
This would lead even a novice evaluator of NFL contracts to believe that Diggs and the Texans could be heading for a breakup, and that would be a shame for Stroud, Caley and Houston's new offense.
Diggs may not be a superstar anymore, but he absolutely still has what it takes to be a strong option with a talented quarterback like Stroud throwing the ball to him and a new play-caller pulling the strings.
