Stefon Diggs lasted just eight games in Houston before an ACL tear sideswiped his season, sending him to injured reserve, sapping the Texans of a weapon and thrusting his future into question.
If C.J. Stroud gets his way, the eight games won't be Diggs' last with the Texans.
"Man, y'all know me, that's my boy, I would love to have Stef back," Stroud said Monday, via the team's official transcript. "And man, I think we were just getting started. Like you see he was having so much fun and me and him were starting to build a rapport."
After Houston traded for Diggs, the wideout signed a revised one-year, $22.52 million contract, making him a free agent in 2025. He heads into a veteran WR market that includes the likes of Tee Higgins, Keenan Allen, Amari Cooper, and Chris Godwin -- who, like Diggs, is coming off a season-ending injury -- among others.
In eight games, Diggs generated 47 catches on 64 targets for 496 yards with three touchdowns.
The question is whether the injury curtails his market and the 31-year-old settles for a shorter, prove-it type deal.
On Monday, Stroud glowed about Diggs' leadership and noted that the wideout didn't complain about his targets. He just wanted to win.
"Like you look at Stef. Like Stef came in with, 'I just want to win. I don't care how it looks, I don't care how many catches I get,'" Stroud said. "He really like meant that too, and you could see in how much joy he had being around the guys, so I would say yeah. Some of those times we're not necessarily trying to cater to one person or cater to three people or five. The Texans want to win."
Houston went 10-7, winning the AFC South and besting the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday.
With Diggs and Tank Dell both suffering season-ending injuries, Stroud was stripped of two of his top targets. Now, Houston heads into the offseason with questions about how it will revamp the receiver room around star Nico Collins.
