03-18-2020, 11:18 AM
Once Vikings went run-heavy, Diggs wanted out.
Whenever the NFL permits teams to return from the coronavirus scare and the Vikings begin their offseason program in Eagan, they might come back to a building that bears fewer artifacts from Diggs’ five seasons in Minnesota. The 26-year-old receiver himself will not be there after a Monday trade that shipped him to Buffalo along with a seventh-round pick in exchange for four Bills draft choices.
The deal seized headlines Monday, but not because of its suddenness. It came with an air of inevitability, after a year’s worth of events that had frayed the relationship between the receiver and the Vikings. On Tuesday, a day after the trade was done and a day before it could become official, the end of the ordeal allowed some in the organization a moment to breathe.
The 21-month journey from that July day to Monday’s trade can perhaps be charted alongside the shifts in offensive identity that took the Vikings from shotgun sets and spread formations to heavy personnel groups and a dogged commitment to the run.
At the time the Vikings paid Diggs, they were set to turn him and Thielen loose in an offense that would throw to set up the ground game. It started well enough, with Thielen tying an NFL record for eight consecutive 100-yard receiving games to start a season and Diggs catching 58 passes in the first half of 2018 as the Vikings began the year in playoff position.
Change in philosophy
But coach Mike Zimmer’s distaste for offensive coordinator John DeFilippo’s approach went from private to public in the second half of the year, and after Zimmer fired DeFilippo in Dec. 2018, the Vikings reorganized their offense around Kevin Stefanski’s collaboration with Gary Kubiak. Cousins went under center most of the time; the Vikings used multiple tight ends more and featured Dalvin Cook in the running game. The approach rankled Diggs early in 2019, and after Thielen again became the team’s highest-paid receiver in April 2019, Diggs skipped portions of the Vikings’ offseason program. During that time, sources told the Star Tribune, the receiver was angling for a trade out of Minnesota.
The contract Diggs signed gave the Vikings plenty of leverage, and the team held firm even as Diggs brooded. But after a second NFC North road loss dropped the Vikings to 2-2 in September, Diggs’ frustrations boiled over in the form of an absence the Vikings couldn’t whitewash.
After he skipped two days of meetings and practice following a loss to the Bears, sources said he was texting teammates he was done with the Vikings, fed up with a role that afforded him only 19 targets in the team’s first four games. Cousins publicly apologized to Thielen that week for not finding him downfield in Chicago; despite a few spats that both have chalked up to their competitive nature, the two always had seemed closer than Cousins and Diggs.
Zimmer closed practice Wednesday that week with an expletive-laden speech about Diggs’ absence (as team play-by-play announcer Paul Allen recounted on his radio show Tuesday) and the Vikings used their considerable leverage to get Diggs back in the building the following day. He surprised the team with an enigmatic news conference, during which he said “there’s truth to all rumors” about whether he was unhappy in Minnesota
http://www.startribune.com/vikings-stefo...568885742/
Whenever the NFL permits teams to return from the coronavirus scare and the Vikings begin their offseason program in Eagan, they might come back to a building that bears fewer artifacts from Diggs’ five seasons in Minnesota. The 26-year-old receiver himself will not be there after a Monday trade that shipped him to Buffalo along with a seventh-round pick in exchange for four Bills draft choices.
The deal seized headlines Monday, but not because of its suddenness. It came with an air of inevitability, after a year’s worth of events that had frayed the relationship between the receiver and the Vikings. On Tuesday, a day after the trade was done and a day before it could become official, the end of the ordeal allowed some in the organization a moment to breathe.
The 21-month journey from that July day to Monday’s trade can perhaps be charted alongside the shifts in offensive identity that took the Vikings from shotgun sets and spread formations to heavy personnel groups and a dogged commitment to the run.
At the time the Vikings paid Diggs, they were set to turn him and Thielen loose in an offense that would throw to set up the ground game. It started well enough, with Thielen tying an NFL record for eight consecutive 100-yard receiving games to start a season and Diggs catching 58 passes in the first half of 2018 as the Vikings began the year in playoff position.
Change in philosophy
But coach Mike Zimmer’s distaste for offensive coordinator John DeFilippo’s approach went from private to public in the second half of the year, and after Zimmer fired DeFilippo in Dec. 2018, the Vikings reorganized their offense around Kevin Stefanski’s collaboration with Gary Kubiak. Cousins went under center most of the time; the Vikings used multiple tight ends more and featured Dalvin Cook in the running game. The approach rankled Diggs early in 2019, and after Thielen again became the team’s highest-paid receiver in April 2019, Diggs skipped portions of the Vikings’ offseason program. During that time, sources told the Star Tribune, the receiver was angling for a trade out of Minnesota.
The contract Diggs signed gave the Vikings plenty of leverage, and the team held firm even as Diggs brooded. But after a second NFC North road loss dropped the Vikings to 2-2 in September, Diggs’ frustrations boiled over in the form of an absence the Vikings couldn’t whitewash.
After he skipped two days of meetings and practice following a loss to the Bears, sources said he was texting teammates he was done with the Vikings, fed up with a role that afforded him only 19 targets in the team’s first four games. Cousins publicly apologized to Thielen that week for not finding him downfield in Chicago; despite a few spats that both have chalked up to their competitive nature, the two always had seemed closer than Cousins and Diggs.
Zimmer closed practice Wednesday that week with an expletive-laden speech about Diggs’ absence (as team play-by-play announcer Paul Allen recounted on his radio show Tuesday) and the Vikings used their considerable leverage to get Diggs back in the building the following day. He surprised the team with an enigmatic news conference, during which he said “there’s truth to all rumors” about whether he was unhappy in Minnesota
http://www.startribune.com/vikings-stefo...568885742/
