In 2020, the Buffalo Bills made a bold move and acquired Stefon Diggs from Minnesota to help Josh Allen take the next step in his third season.
The move, along with improved mechanics from the QB, paid off: Allen exploded, passing for 4,544 yards, led the league in completion percentage, saw his completion percentage go from 58.8 to 69.2 and made his first Pro Bowl. Diggs was electric, posting a league-leading 127 catches for 1,535 yards and eight touchdowns, earning first-team All-Pro honors. Diggs gave Allen a true No. 1 target who could counter any coverage and bail him out of bad balls.
Davis Webb was a quarterback on the practice squad for the Bills that season. He had a front row seat to see how big a role Diggs played in elevating Allen to the MVP QB he became.
Webb, who is an offensive coordinator and play caller for the Denver Broncos, sees some similarities between the Bills’ trade for Diggs and Denver’s acquisition of Jaylen Waddle this offseason.
“He’s good. He’s a really good player,” he said of Waddle, via The Athletic’s Nick Kosmider. “There’s some similarities when I was with Josh Allen going into Year 3, similar to Bo (Nix) going into Year 3, and we traded for Stefon Diggs. It was a good year. It was a good two-year run in ’20 and ’21 when I was together with them. Just seeing the growth from both players in that time, there’s some similarity with what’s going to happen here.” long way to go, but man, he’s good, and I’ve just enjoyed watching him work.
Waddle has played spectacularly in OTAs, showing the ability to work and make plays after the catch. Of course, doing that in the no-contract era is much different than in 17 real games, but the insights are there.
The Broncos’ offense went into a slump far too often last season. The belief is that Waddle, with his ability to beat man or zone and speed to blast past defenders, will help eliminate those ineffective stretches. The former player has the ability to reinvigorate the offense and give the Nix a target.
The potential Diggs-type impact Waddle can have on the offense is why the Broncos weren’t shy about paying a first-round-plus-something price tag for a WR. If Waddle can further fuel Nix’s development in Year 3, it will be worth the price tag.