Stefon Diggs explains minicamp tiff with the Bills, says it's 'water under the bridge'

Stefon Diggs spoke to the media on Wednesday for the Buffalo Bills' first day of training camp. He addressed the situation where he didn't practice during the team's mandatory minicamp and had head coach Sean McDermott "very concerned."

"If anybody has a family here, everybody has family issues, everybody has family problems in the house," the three-time Pro Bowler said, reflecting on how the team's season ended last year in the divisional round of the playoffs. "Obviously, the way we lost was just terrible in any regard, you don't want to lose any game, but we lost for a couple years at this point. We've been trying to get over the hump and obviously, it caused for a lot of frustration."

Diggs said that he was on the team premises for camp and that the situation was handled.

"We had a conversation, everything, all is well, water under the bridge, now we back at work," he said. "I look at football, it's kind of hard, it's a business at the end of the day, but when you go out there and you fight tooth and nail, you put a lot of sweat equity into this thing, it starts to feel like a family. So for me, I kinda keep everything in-house, but at the end of the day, we had those conversations, everything that needed to be said was said, we talked it out as men, everybody involved."

General manager Brandon Beane also spoke on Diggs' standing with the team and said the former Maryland standout is not alone in his feelings.

"Love Stef," he said, per Batavia Daily News' Alex Brasky. "He's a competitor and I find myself is very competitive too. He just wants to win. And nothing wrong with that. We all do it different ways. Stef's in a good spot, I think. The offseason's the offseason. We're all going different ways, especially as players, that last game ends and you don't get to go back and review the film whenever you want and see what happened. It's tough. Everyone works hard. Starting even before we get here, but it really starts. It's a long grind. Obviously, last season, we went through a lot. We don't need to review that. But listen, I was frustrated too. We wanna win this thing. We're working hard and so nobody's walking out of that locker room smiling when you lost like that."

After minicamp, quarterback Josh Allen spoke on what he thought his receiver was going through, saying that the team could work on communication. At training camp, Diggs acknowledged that there were hiccups, especially in the red zone. He said that he was taking responsibility and asking himself how he can be better for his quarterback.

He was asked if Allen was referring to the wideout's desire for more influence in the offense.

"That's insane. For me to just want more say in the offense is crazy because I play receiver. I don't care what play is called. I can't get up there and say, 'Call this,'" he said. "There's a lot of outlandish obvious things people were throwing out there as far as like my role. I've been a captain on this team for three years, there's no question about my role and who I am as a player, how hard I work. Those things never had question marks and you can't say the same thing for a lot of people in the league. As a player, who I am and what I am has always been represented and what I do on a consistent basis, how hard I work, you can see it. My teammates speak highly about me in that regard, especially considering I've been a captain since I've gotten here."

Throughout the interview, Diggs continued to refer to the human element of the game, saying that "I am a player of a professional sport, but I'm human at the end of the day. People forget we're human."

"We were going to the Super Bowl, we got all the motivation and it didn't happen," Diggs said. "That's why I said at the end of the day, being frustrated is real. Having things like that happen and you want the best for your team and you want to be in the Super Bowl, you want to make that run, it's human to be frustrated at the end of the day. So yeah, I got frustrated, but after it was done, it was done."

He noted that he "wasn't frustrated this offseason" and "one hundred percent" wants to retire as a member of the Bills franchise. He said that people comparing this situation to the one he had as a member of the Minnesota Vikings where he also had frustration with the team and skipped practice mid-season is a cop-out and that the media doesn't have the full picture on either situation. In 2020, the Vikings traded Diggs to the Bills.

"Forcing my way out anywhere is not my goal," he said. "I don't feel like I have to at this point, I feel like I'm in a great space, I'm in a great place. I'm loved and I'm appreciated. And at the end of the day, that's all I want. That's all anybody would want at any job that you do. I don't care what you do or who you work for, you want to be appreciated for what you do."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stefon Diggs speaks on minicamp tiff with the Bills