Stefon Diggs on facing the Bills: Block out the noise

Sunday’s matchup between the Bills and Texans will help to shape the way the future looks in the AFC, but the past is also going to be front and center.

The offseason trade that sent wide receiver Stefon Diggs from Buffalo to Houston and the reasons the wideout’s relationship with his former team went awry has been a major storyline this week and that will make his performance on Sunday a closely watched part of how things play out on the field. On Wednesday, though, Diggs said he’s only thinking about the game on its own terms.

“Block out the noise,” Diggs said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “A lot of other people are going to feel a way or have a lot to say about X,Y, Z, and I don’t mind. I’m not mad at it. Just trying to go 1-0. Obviously, they’re a good team. They have a lot of guys that can fly around on the defense. But they’re a really good team. So, I look forward to it.”

In his own media session, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud said that he thought Diggs got a “bad rap” on his way out of Buffalo and that he’s been a great teammate in Houston. Diggs said he’s found that it’s easy for such a reputation to form and that “things usually turn the corner” in new surroundings, so he takes all of it with “a grain of salt” while focusing on his play.

Given the quality of the teams, there’s ample motivation to win on Sunday without getting into any personal motivations. That may make Diggs’s history with the Bills of more interest to those watching the game, but there will be plenty riding on the results in Houston regardless of the reason.