Stefon Diggs Upset With The Bills (Hour 3)

Oh boy, things are getting interesting.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We were just talking about the Stefan Diggs situation, which is very, very, very confusing. He just got paid last year and he's not happy in Buffalo. And there's one thing to not be happy because the team has not won a Super Bowl yet.

And the last three years, they lost to the Chiefs of the AFC Championship game, then lost to the Chiefs in the divisional round, and this past year got embarrassed by the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round. That's one thing, but you've had an entire off season. And on the first day of mandatory minicamp, you supposedly showed up on Monday to take care of all the medicals. And then today you showed up, you had some meeting reportedly with Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott. And then Sean McDermott gets to the podium and he says, yeah, it's very concerning that Stefan Diggs isn't here. Now, he was in the building, but he left before the practice happened. So I don't get what's going on in Buffalo, but the only thing that I could logically conclude is that Stefan Diggs isn't happy.

And there's better ways to go about it. Now, I don't know what was communicated today in that meeting, like Hickey. For Sean McDermott to say it's very concerning, here's why I believe McDermott more over Stefan Diggs. If he's not happy, if he showed up and he had the meeting with them and he said, yeah, I'm not coming to practice today.

Well, it's mandatory, so why aren't you? I'm not happy with X, Y, and Z. That's one option. Or the other option is he didn't tell them that he wasn't going to practice today. And he had that meeting and then he bolted right after that.

Neither of those situations, and maybe there's a third one that you could think of, which I can't right now. None of those things makes Stefan Diggs look all that good right now. Yeah, I mean, obviously we don't know what he's upset about. The reality is he talked to Sean McDermott. He talked to Brandon Bean yesterday, today, both days. We're still upset about whatever the topic he's talking about.

They decided to skip out on practice. He's posting cryptic Instagram messages. He's acting like a child. He's frustrated about something that's not contract related because he just got paid. So it's something football related, but not with a contract. I don't know if you're upset about targets, if you're upset about the way the offense is running. Either way, he is frustrated at something and he's not handling it the way you absolutely should.

That's bare minimum. And if there was something going on, like in his personal life, and he needed to be away from the team, you communicate that. And I'm not suggesting that there is, but I'm just trying to think here. You communicate that and you wouldn't have your coach, after you had a meeting with him, get in front of reporters and say, yeah, it's very concerning that Safon Diggs isn't here. So this is him being frustrated with the targets, with the performance maybe of the quarterback in the AFC division around. And that's like, or the way that the offense was called last year.

Remember they had to change. Brian Dabel now with the Giants, Ken Dorsey gets promoted and he ended up being their offensive coordinator. There's not many things here that you could kind of put into, like kind of theorize here on what the frustration could actually be with Safon Diggs. And the fact is, the contract is what it is.

You sign the contract. And that's the first time we've had a player that is disgruntled, but with dead cap in the NFL, this could only hurt the Buffalo Bills if this is gonna be a major issue all throughout the year. And if Safon Diggs, and right now, hey, it's only June. You got time to get on the same page, but if you're all committed as you said you are to winning and you want to turn this around in Buffalo, you really think putting up this big stink is necessary to get the coaching staff and the general manager to see whatever you're saying right now? And I know that Josh Allen went to bat for him today and they said that working through things, maybe that's just Josh Allen being a good leader and saying the right thing. And if we end up having more things come out and Safon Diggs is in the right here, I'll wear a egg on my face.

I have no problem doing that. But I don't see how this is the right way to go about it where you show up on Monday, you show up on Tuesday, you go to the meeting for the medical side of it and then have a meeting with the coach and the GM, but then you bolt right before the start of practice. And it's not as if Safon Diggs is trying to put out the flames here of the fire where a lot of people saw what they saw at the end of the year, where he was visibly upset on the sideline as the season was coming to a close. But the fact that he's still upset now, I just don't get what he's upset about because you're in a situation that's a good situation. Good situation. You got paid and you have a damn good team and a team that needs you to be all in and all invested in an AFC East that's even tougher now.

And an AFC is a conference that got a whole lot better this off season when you already have a giant standing in your way in Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City and Joe Burrow in Cincinnati just for starters. And Safon Diggs during the break goes to his Instagram story and sends out a cryptic message. I just be letting people cap. If them lies help you sleep better, tell them, big dog. What lies are here? Because once again, Hickey, hate to assume because you usually make an ass out of you and me, but this has to be about the situation today. And all we've heard publicly was from Josh Allen and then also Sean McDermott. What did Josh Allen say that was all that wrong? So this is about what Sean McDermott said. Once again, Sean McDermott said he's very concerned about Safon Diggs not being there. So what happened in the meeting where Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean are in the wrong and you're in the right. That's my question in this situation. The only thing that's possible here is that Safon Diggs communicated that he's not gonna be at minicamp and whether it was agreed upon and maybe the bills were upset about it and understood it. Again, I don't know what the deal is. And again, coaches, players, you can be excused if you want to.

You could find ways around it if their reason is valid or the team doesn't want to push or whatever. The only thing I could guess as to why Safon Diggs is or who he's calling a liar has to be Sean McDermott is that McDermott said he was concerned. And we know Sean McDermott does not speak out of turn. He's not a hot take artist where he just kind of talks from the top of his head.

He is very calculated and he rarely kind of gives you any sort of insight of what's going on the team dynamics. So for him to say he's concerned, he obviously knew that was going to explode and obviously it did. My only guess is that Diggs thinks he communicated that I'm not coming. It's no big deal and the bills are fine with it. And now he's upset that McDermott's thrown him under the bus.

I don't know. I would believe Sean McDermott here without a doubt cuz Sean McDermott again doesn't do these kind of things. And when he does, I would think he does it with reason. And you're not the biggest fan of McDermott to be clear too.

No, I know I am not. But yeah, I think like again, we've seen him talk. That's a guy who always defends his players. When you kind of throw a player under the bus or just kind of leave it out there for interpretation.

Deserved most of the time. Right. And that's why I don't think Sean McDermott's just doing this willy nilly or just kind of selling his player down the river for no reason. This feels right and this feels again calculated by McDermott. And I'm assuming that message that Diggs just posted is about what McDermott said about being concerned more than anything else. So within the span of an hour, you get Sean McDermott telling reporters that he's very concerned that wide receiver Staphon Diggs is not at Buffalo's mandatory minicamp. Then Adisa Bakari, who is the agent for Staphon Diggs, we actually met at the Super Bowl. He also represents Christian Watson. He is talking to Adam Schefter and he told Adam Schefter that his client is in Buffalo, has been in Buffalo since yesterday morning, took his physical, met with the head coach and GM the past two days, and the Pro Bowl wide receiver will be there for the entirety of the minicamp.

Minicamp. So you're going to have Staphon Diggs show up tomorrow. Is Staphon Diggs going to be participating in practice? Because according to what the agent said, it seems that way that he's going to be there for the entirety of minicamp.

He's just talking about being in the state of Buffalo or the city of Buffalo. And here's the other thing. And I kind of hope that this is going to be the case. Staphon Diggs is going to talk to the media tomorrow. Is Staphon Diggs going to speak at all during minicamp to kind of set the record straight? And if that's the case, I'm really curious to hear what he has to say, because if Staphon Diggs is throwing other people onto the bus there and thinks he didn't do anything wrong, you think you have a problem now and we're speculating we have a problem, then it turns into an even bigger problem.

These next few days are going to be fascinating. If you're a Staphon Diggs, can you show up to minicamp tomorrow? Like at this point, whatever you told him that you were, if that's the case that he doesn't show up tomorrow, I will just throw this out there. How well did Staphon Diggs communicate all this to his agent? Because it seems like the agent was like, well, I'm confused here. Well, what's the coach concerned about? He showed up yesterday. He showed up today and he's going to be there for the entirety of the minicamp. Almost makes me think that the agent didn't think that anything was going on wrong. And maybe this was a secret dip out by Staphon Diggs.

Or maybe once again, it was a meeting that got very contentious and Staphon Diggs just said, he's out of here. Either way, it's a mandatory minicamp. And if you listen to this show as someone that has covered mandatory minicamps, I've told you before, monotonous, boring. You don't really accomplish that much, but it's mandatory. You gotta be there.

This is not voluntary OTAs. This is mandatory minicamp. And if you weren't going to go to the actual practice session today, what was the point of showing up yesterday? And what was the point of showing up just this morning if you were never going to get on the field? It kind of makes me think that Staphon Diggs, and once again, this is all assumption, kind of makes you think Staphon Diggs was there intending to show up, but he wanted to hear some different things from Buffalo and Buffalo see whatever his side is. And Buffalo obviously didn't see his side. Buffalo probably pushed back in that meeting. And if I take a guess, this is probably more so where I would have thought earlier this morning, Staphon Diggs just kind of dipping out today, probably makes me think that this meeting today was contentious between Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott and Staphon Diggs. Which is part of the reason why I'd be surprised if he shows up any of the two other days to minicamp at this point.

I mean, you miss a third of the days. If you are that upset where you storm out and it's not like this is the first time you stormed out of a meeting. Remember at the end of the season, last game, he tried to reportedly leave the locker room for teammates to basically drag him back in for the last team speech, skipped out on the media completely. So we haven't heard him talk publicly in a very long time.

And it's not like he doesn't have a track record of leaving when he's frustrated. Yeah. The last time we've heard him speak was at the Super Bowl where I don't know if he was on Radio Row, but he was doing some interviews at the Super Bowl. I'm pretty sure.

I think I heard him on the Dan Patrick show. And this just got a whole lot interesting because whenever you get the cryptic social media posts, and I think we've all done this where you sub tweet or your sub post, nothing really ever good comes out of this. And the thing that I want to know, what is the fun dig so mad about? You just got paid.

You're on a good team. Yeah. I would be annoyed if you weren't frustrated.

The team has not got to a Super Bowl and hasn't won a Super Bowl yet, but does it really mean that you have to try to go blow the whole thing up? Do you really want out? Like, I'm just gonna ask the question, do you want out? Because right now it's one thing to not be happy in June, but how long are you going to let this thing linger? Because the longer this thing lingers, the more concerning it gets, because then what happens in the middle of the season and let's say week six or week seven, when he doesn't have a good game or he doesn't like the targets or something goes wrong, you just get a storm off. He's going to go somewhere else. And I don't want to say like Buffalo made their bed now they have to lie in it because Staphon Diggs had an ugly divorce from Minnesota, goes to Buffalo, helps Josh Allen, Josh Allen helps him. Now the guy's viewed as the number one wide receiver in the sport, easily top 10 wide receiver in the sport. And he got a big fat paycheck. So this is not Chris Jones today, which just kind of flies under the radar, who's under contract, but is looking for a new deal. This is not him not showing up because he wants that new deal. If you're Staphon Diggs, you can't possibly want a new deal.

You just signed one in 2022, last off season. And you're compensated more than fairly. So the bills have pretty much done everything right by you.

And I know guys are wired a different way that are these elite great competitors that are these great football players, but this one makes no damn sense. And I thought Liget doosable earlier hit the nail right in the head. There's certain ways to go about this. And what's the fond digs is doing right now is not the right way to go about this.

You could have problems with the organization. You may have a problem with Josh Allen. You may have a problem with Sean McDermott, but for the most part they've done right by you. So now you got to do right by them and work through this, because if Staphon Diggs is not happy in Buffalo this year, then the bills don't have a chance to win a Super Bowl. The bills don't have a shot to go to a Super Bowl. So the mood of Staphon Diggs may really determine what the apex can be for the Buffalo Bills this season.

And right now, championships aren't won or lost in June, but right now this is not a good start to your season. This is not putting the best foot forward to turn around some of the shortcomings the last few years in Buffalo. Staphon Diggs has showed you before we is he's showing you again right now.

He is selfish and if he's going to continue that, I think you're right. The bills are in big time trouble. And you know what? He seems like a really good dude. You know, I've only had limited interactions with Staphon Diggs, but going back to Lantz a few years ago, you know, I was hanging out with him a little bit at Radio Row. We were talking, he didn't even come on the air. He was just sitting down at the table waiting to do another interview.

And like, I probably talked to him for like 20 minutes, like really down to earth, good guy. But in Minnesota was an ugly ending and that happens. But now for this to happen here, like in Minnesota, Kirk Cousins is your quarterback. There's limitations with Kirk Cousins. Good quarterback, not a great quarterback.

Not a guy you think you win a Super Bowl. What's the problem with Josh Allen? What's the problem you have in Buffalo right now? I know Buffalo hasn't got to the top of the mountain, but they've been pretty damn close. It's not as if they're that far away. So this one is a giant head scratcher.

And the more and more this goes on, it doesn't make Staphon Diggs look good. I'll tell you that. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. You win one championship as a head coach and it becomes addicting and it doesn't take all that long.

Michael Malone already sounded like DJ Khaled. He wants another one. Mike Malone says he wants to win another championship.

All the hard work, all the sacrifice, all the dedication, all culminated with us winning a championship. But I got news for everybody out there. We're not satisfied with one. We want more.

We want more. Mike Malone, courtesy of ABC. Hey, you know what I thought was fascinating about that? So that's typical when you hear that from a coach in a post-game interview on the court after the game after winning a championship at the parade, which I think is coming up Thursday in Denver. ESPN was saying as the time was ticking down that he was like turn around to his players, turn around to the fans and saying, this is just one. Like we're getting more.

In the moment, it shows you how this guy is wired. I love that. Respect that because again, it's easy to say when you win all, of course, we'll be back. Of course, everything's going to go right like it did this year again, but to kind of as right before you can even enjoy the first one already think about number two and number three, absolutely impressive. Let's hear Mike Malone saying the patience of this group really paid off. This is what I really envisioned a few years ago when we got Aaron Gordon.

And you know, sometimes a dream is deferred and our dream was deferred for a few years, but we stuck with it and we added the right pieces. You shout out to Calvin Booth and the job that he's done. And yeah, this is just a unbelievable feeling. Calvin Booth, someone's not talked about really enough. And we reached out to about a quick exchange with him earlier this morning.

He's been on this show a bunch and we'll try to get him on it sometime this week or next week. But it seems like everyone and deserve it. Understandably, so you talk about Jokic, you talk about Jamal Murray. You then also talk about Mike Malone because he throws it back in a lot of people's faces.

And Calvin Booth has done a really good job with this team in adding the right pieces, the other guys, to make this a deep team. So it's not just you're constantly relying on only Nicole Jokic and Jamal Murray because through a long playoff run, you need more than just a player or two players in this case. Let's go to a few cuts from Nicole Jokic.

These are all pretty short. Nicole Jokic on his message to the doubters, this courtesy of ESPN. You were the 41st pick in the draft. A Taco Bell commercial was running when your pick was announced.

What do you think of that now? They believe in the fat boy and it seems like it work out. Yeah, don't bet against the fat boy. Hickey, this is a win for fat boys everywhere. Not that you're really one to be able to speak on the state of the fat boy union because you're not really, well you're not fat at all. You're pretty in good shape, but this is a win for the big fellas. Don't bet against the fat boy.

I love that. I may have that put in a poster and put on my wall. That's a great slogan.

Don't bet against the fat boy. I thought you were gonna say you put it on a poster at CBS Sports Radio. It'd be like the new play like a champion sign at Notre Dame where everyone would slap it on their way in. Hey, I'll be slapping that sign. That's for sure. Get me fired up before the show.

Nicole Jokic discusses what it's like to be an NBA champion. It's good. It's good. The job is done. We can go home now.

That's one of the great lines. The job is done. We can go home now.

And he wasn't joking about that. This dude wants to get home as quick as possible. This is him reacting to a question when he heard that the parade is on Thursday. I'm curious what you are feeling right now.

And if you're looking forward to a parade coming up in Denver. Thursday. No, I need to go home. Okay. And let's listen up to some audio via NBA TV.

Another question that was asked to Nicole Jokic and he explains why he needs to go home. You got a parade coming up here on Thursday. Yes.

How soon till you're back in Singapore? On Sundays, I have my horse racing. I was going to get to that. The horse race. I don't know how we're going to arrive.

Thursday, eight, Friday, maybe. This guy is so interesting where he just won a championship. He didn't even look all that fired up. It was a nice moment with him and his family.

But the way that I'll remember the Jokic family from winning this championship, the guys that look like they were the most fired up are his brothers, who were once again throwing around Mike Malone hickey as if he was a rag doll. You watch his demeanor yesterday. You just hear his clips after the game. He sounds like someone on a Friday in the summer and it's 4 30.

You got to get out of five. He's just waiting for that clock to tick down to when he could get home. Doesn't care about any work tasks. All he cares about is let me get home. I've never heard that from someone who won a championship ever.

I find it amusing. It's almost as if you work your way to get to this point your entire life. And so many people doubted him. That guy was a second round pick.

Guy was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial and he wins a championship. I just want to go home and I just want to go see my horses. He's got to race the horses. Who else is sitting in the, what do they call it? The stable?

No. Well, they're like the seat. It's the jockey saddle.

I'll think of it. It's a specific type of racing. Okay. Trotter. Trotter.

Who else are going to be leading the Trotters? Gotcha. Just that's his thing.

Have you ever seen any footage of him with the horses? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's like that little, the buggy. Oh, he's in like that little side cart.

Yeah. Well, it's in the back, but yeah. All seven foot, two of them.

All seven foot, two of them. I got to look at, I've never seen these horses in front. The carriage, the buggy, whatever you want to call it is in the back and he's there. And if you're like, see the Trotters style of racing, that's, that's what he raised. I believe he's racing them. I don't think he just owns them.

He made it seem like he's racing them himself. Do you remember the former Russian goalie, Ilya Brzgalov? Oh yeah.

Brz. I've never heard an athlete since Ilya Brzgalov basically give you nothing in, in post post-game press conferences, but it'd be so funny. You know, it's Ilya Brzgalov and Nikola Jokic. Remember Ilya Brzgalov?

My Siberian Huskies. He kept on talking about those Huskies in the hard knocks version of the NHL, whatever that was called before. I think it was that, that outdoor winter series. The winter classic.

Yes. I guess the Rangers like a decade ago, but yeah, Nikola Jokic, man, forget what the ring, forget about the finals MVP trophy, which I don't know if you saw it. He didn't like, he'd like left on the stage. He didn't care about it.

It was like a toy, basically. He just wanted to get home. And if he could have got home that night, I think he would have. Do you think he'll be good at the parade?

Do you think when they, they wanted to do a speech, he's going to be like Denver, thank you. Now I got to go home to my horses. I got to gas up the jet. I'm out of here.

I'll see you in October. He doesn't have to go to the parade. I mean, if it was up to him, he would not go.

I bet you, honestly, I think he would have left last night. Maybe this morning, if you want to celebrate his teammates, he does not seem like someone who's excited to be in Denver for a few other days to celebrate the pinnacle of your career. Have you ever seen any footage? Have you seen any footage of the last 24 hours of the Nuggets partying? All I've seen was that video of Aaron Gordon in his, in his a short still from the game, roaming the streets and partying up with the fans, like out on the town. No, no, we haven't seen any clubs or anything like that. I have not kind of feel like the Coleo could just go home with his family and kind of throw a little party in the house. He does not scream in the center of the club. Everyone's looking at me as I'm drinking a $5,000 bottle. He's not Alexander Ovechkin in Las Vegas after the capsule in the Stanley cup, after beating the Vegas Golden Knights in their first year of existence and drinking champagne out of the Stanley cup and a bunch of other things. No.

Yeah, no, he does not seem like that kind of guy. Jamal Murray on why he was so emotional during the trophy presentation. I couldn't really hold it in. It was just a surreal moment and everything was hitting, you know what I'm saying? Like everything was hitting at once from the journey to the celebration with the guys to, um, enjoying the moment to, uh, looking back on, on the rehab, to looking back as myself as a kid, as the other viewer, you know what I'm saying?

Looking from the crowd in or from the camera lens in, and now be able to look back at them. It's actually my favorite story from the Denver Nuggets winning it all. Like, yeah, sure. You could talk about Nicole Jokic now being referred to as the best player in the sport. Won two MVPs now as a NBA championship and a finals MVP. And he's the definition of being selfless. He's a great teammate, but I look at the Jamal Murray story.

Hickey. That's my favorite one from this team being a champion because they were on their way and then he tears his ACL. And then it was like, okay, can they get back to that spot? And it, a lot of it was reliant on that belief that he will get back to being healthy and not only being healthy, but being a really damn good player. And with basically missing almost two years, you have to knock off some, some rust and you're able to get a championship this soon and get him back onto the court and your first opportunity to do so. I, for me, when I look at the Denver Nuggets, that's my favorite story. When you reflect on last night, it's just amazing story perseverance. Like I said to you here, talk about the doubts and the lows he had and was thought that the nuggets are going to trade him as afraid about that. And now you kind of see, like I said, two in his first post-season back to be able to just to play at that high of a level and get it done.

It was, it was awesome. Awesome to see problems in Buffalo, or maybe just one problem. And it's the fun digs. Here's Sean McDermott staying. Stefan Diggs isn't at mandatory minicamp today. Steph is not here.

Everybody else is here at the current time. How concerned are you about that? Oh, very concerned.

Yeah. Very concerned. I'm not going to get into, and listen, I respect everyone's, everyone's questions and what they want to know about our team right now.

I'm just, I'm not going to get into, into that anymore. So we'll talk about practice. Happy to do that.

Happy to answer those questions. And we'll move forward from there. So you get that answer. And then an hour later, Stefan Diggs agent comes out through Adam Schefter and says, hold on. Stefan Diggs is in Buffalo.

He showed up on Monday, went to facility, got out of the medicals, taken care of, showed up on Tuesday. There was a meeting and then we don't know, or no one knows why Stefan Diggs didn't make his way onto the practice field. Let's hear from Josh Allen, the quarterback of the Bills. He says Stefan Diggs is working through personal stuff with the teeth.

Oh, I know internally we're, we're working on some things. Not football related, but you know, Steph, he's my guy. I, excuse my love him. He's a brother of mine.

You know, this does not work. What we're doing here without him. You know, we, we wish he was in here today and was out there on the field with us.

And that's, that's not the case, but I've got his back no matter what. So Josh Allen said, Hickey, he's working through personal stuff with the team, not football related. It's like, what could that be? Because if there was something serious off the field going on, I don't think Sean McDermott would get out there today, spill the beans and go up. I'm very concerned about Stefan Diggs.

So it clearly has to do with something on the football field that he's not happy about right now. Let's hear a few more from Josh Allen on what the solution could be to get Stefan Diggs back on the field. I've got no doubts that, that we will figure out what's going on and freaking love him.

I can't stress that enough. You know, there's things that I could, I could do better and, you know, to help out with this process and try to get him back here and, and, you know, be the Buffalo abilities that he's meant to be. And Josh Allen says communication with everyone can improve.

I think that there are some, some things that could have gone better last year and didn't. And just, you know, I think we're just as a, as an organization, maybe not communicating the right way with, with everything. So again, just trying to talk and listen at the same time and hear him out.

And like I said, just try to move this forward as, as quickly and as respectfully as, you know, as possible. Hey, if you had to play a quick game of multiple choice and all the above, maybe the answer here, but if you maybe had to pick who is Stefan Diggs most mad at? Is it Josh Allen? Is it Brandon being the GM? Is it Sean McDermott, the head coach, or is it the offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey? Cause he's clearly mad at someone. It may be a multitude of people and it may be all, but who do you think his frustration is, is the most heated with? I would, it's all close. I would probably say McDermott first.

Like I, I don't know to be honest. I don't think it's Josh Allen, but there's Josh Allen telling you I could communicate better too with him and I could do some things that are, you know, can improve his feelings toward the team. I feel like Josh Allen had to walk on eggshells there. We had to support his guy, but he knows whatever's happening behind the scenes isn't the right way to go about it because you were there today in a meeting and then you didn't go to mandatory mini camp on the practice field. So did you tell the team that you weren't going to go to the field or did you just storm out and say, I'm not going to go there or did you not even tell them at all and just let them in the dark? And now he just about like 20 minutes ago posted on Instagram, I just be letting people cap if them lies help you sleep better.

Tell him big dog. So this is just an absolute mess. Are they changing the offense? Like, are they becoming more run heavy? Like that's the only thing I could think of when, when Josh Allen talking about communication with everyone needs to see as a year ago, like are they all of a sudden now going to say, actually, we're going to run the ball 70% of the time.

And now we're sorry, Stefan. You're not going to get any more targets like in the year of 2023. I don't think that's football in the year of 2023. I would agree, but I'm just like, what in terms of communication can you possibly fall through the cracks in the last six months? You know what?

I think we finally found out who, who him is. Maybe this is just the way that he operates because he had a bad ending in Minnesota. And now when the situation is actually pretty good in Buffalo, the same thing's happening all over again.

And Josh Allen knows they need him because without him, they don't have a shot to, to go win a Super Bowl this year. You know what we can pot down the music. I usually go to like a voice of reason here. And I kind of feel like the voice of reason in terms of what is right and what is wrong and how you conduct yourself on this show, which really means, man, it's slim pickings around here.

Marco Bellotti is our leader, but he is the veteran leader here in the clubhouse at CBS sports radio. How do you interpret this whole Stefan Diggs situation? I don't know, obviously what Diggs's problem is. And obviously he's being a child.

However, I will lay a lot of this at the feet of Sean McDermott, a lot of it. And you know why? And if I'm the owner right now, he's getting called into my office. You went in front of the media and you said, he's not here. I'm very concerned. Not taking any more questions about it. Let's move on.

Why the hell did you open the can? He's not here. Personal issues, guys, we're dealing with it. It's an in-house thing. We'll talk about it at some other point.

We'll let you know. But right now we just need to take care of some personal issues. You quell the whole situation in one shot. You're the head coach. Your job is to make sure you don't have distraction. When your player is getting out of line and becoming a child, you are the adult. And Sean McDermott opened up this entire situation. If he does the right thing, we have no idea what happened.

That's his job. By the way, I'm going to admit, I'm a little afraid. Marco just went into dad mode right there. Lex, you're in the kit.

I'd be nervous. If your child gets out of line, who the hell is responsible? The adult in the room. Sean McDermott, you're supposed to be the adult in the room. Guess what, Buffalo?

If you can't get to the mountaintop, if you can't get to the pinnacle, if you can't get to the Super Bowl and get that trophy, the Lombardi trophy, that's so elusive for you. You know why? Because your head coach is a child.

And that's why. You know what it is, though? It makes me think that clearly McDermott was annoyed with whatever transpired in that meeting today. And the great coaches find a way to eliminate the distractions and they just get up there and like, hey, Stefan's not here. We'll address at a later date. Or, you know, we're working through things, blah, blah, blah.

You give an answer without basically giving an answer. And it makes me now even think more than ever with the way that you laid it out, that that was a real contentious meeting. And they are annoyed. It's the fond things that the coach will let the emotions get the best of.

And then in the press conference say, hey, I'm very concerned about him. See, I understand frustration. I understand human emotion. I understand being annoyed. I understand if they sat down and they thought everything was fine.

And then all of a sudden he leaves and you're like, where the hell is he? I get all that. But your job is to make sure that that doesn't get out in front of the media and everybody else.

You keep that stuff in house because the first thing you say when a player starts talking to the media is, hey, keep that between us. We'll try to figure it out. It's our family problems. Don't air it out.

You opened it up. Josh challenge now going to answer for it. Every other Buffalo Bill player in that clubhouse, in that locker room has to answer for it now because of Sean McDermott. Let me ask you this. The agent said he's showing up. That was this morning. Now we've seen the cryptic social media posts, right?

The playbook that always get played out here by the player. Does he show up for the next mandatory minicamp? I have no idea. I mean, obviously you got to speak the media to immediately clear the air here.

It's tomorrow. So we'll see if he comes back to practice tomorrow. I don't know, but I do feel like that little shot that digs had on Instagram, that's at McDermott about what he's talking about. So there is a miscommunication. There's a problem with their line of communication.

All of that happens. Do I think that digs is in the wrong with this? Probably. Yeah.

My guess is he probably is annoyed about something that really is not that big a deal. And I'm sure the coaches are looking and going, Jesus, it's the first day. Like, are you serious? Like, we got to do this now. We're going into the first day going into a new year. We got to go back to six months ago. It's not about money because you just got paid. So all of this is nonsense and you're being a child.

Well, guess what? You got to handle the child. And what you did was you made it worse for you. You made it worse for the entire organization, for all of your other 52 players.

That's a problem to me because now you've opened up a distraction. You walked into a season where it's Super Bowl or bust and you had the smallest little contentious problem and you made it a giant mountain. And we're going to talk about it all year because digs last, last time we saw him, he's yelling at Josh Allen on the sidelines in a playoff loss. You're telling me they get off to a six and two start and digs is, you know, upset about whatever.

We're not going to talk about this story. No doubt about it. It wouldn't have been if McDermott quelled it today. He screwed up and the entire team, the whole team, the roster, everybody's got to deal with it. To me, that's a bad job by your head coach. And that's, it's a problem. I think that's part of the issue with the bills.

You don't have good leadership. And I think it's showing more and more and more. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio.

Hickster, what a fired up. Capitan, Marco Belletti. We know Marco pretty well. I've now have interacted with Marco probably since what, 2018 I would say. And Marco by nature is a loud guy, but I've never heard Marco Belletti sound that disgusted and that disappointed with what's going on in Buffalo right now. When not only do you look at Stefan Diggs being in the wrong or it seems like he's in the wrong, but Marco brought up a great point that, yeah, sure. Sean McDermott probably was frustrated, probably wasn't happy with what transpired in the meeting, but then you get in front of the media and yeah, he's probably like, oh, now we got to deal with this crap because everyone knows Stefan Diggs isn't here.

It wasn't spotted at the mini camp practice. And are you frustrated? And he goes, or are you concerned about him not being there? And he's like, yeah, very concerning. And I'm going to nip in the bud. We're not going to talk about it anymore.

And I can't say that Marco is all that wrong. I probably can understand the frustration of Sean McDermott because you're trying to start a new season and you got to deal with all this crap. And it seems probably if you're the coach that whatever Stefan Diggs is complaining about, it's probably trivial and it's not that big of a deal, but now it is an enormous deal. And I'm not going to say just having Sean McDermott say what he said today is the biggest part of why this is a big deal, but Stefan Diggs clearly left today and was not happy. Whether he communicated he was leaving and he wasn't happy, or he didn't communicate that he was leaving and he isn't happy, that's kind of irrelevant. He is unhappy. And if you're Sean McDermott, which is a big year for the Bills, I can understand why you're frustrated, but you didn't help the situation today. I get what Marco is saying.

I'll say two things in retort. Number one, look, there's obviously a precedent set when Stefan Diggs kind of pulled the same card back in Minnesota. He got traded and got what he wants. So if you're Sean McDermott, I'm sure this is not the first time you've been frustrated with Stefan Diggs and maybe had a talk about something he's upset about that maybe is trivial.

Maybe that has to do with him and his numbers. And you're trying to at this point maybe just, you know what? Instead of saying he's excused, we're not gonna talk about it, everything's okay, he called him on the carpet on purpose. I think now to kind of put a lot of attention to Stefan Diggs and maybe kind of blow up what he's upset about. And if we ever find out about it, I'm sure it's gonna probably be more selfish driven than it is gonna be, we're gonna be upset about McDermott.

Also what I'll say, it's June what, 13th. There's drama, they're upset, obviously, but we are still two months away from basically training camp starting. Three months away from the season starting. You got plenty of time between now and then to patch this up and move past this drama when mini camp is here. This is training camp, this is in season, totally different story, but you can afford to deal with some media and some scrutiny now in June.

It's a lot easier to do so compared to August, September and October. But if he doesn't come on out tomorrow and kind of pooh-pooh this entire thing and put it to bed and lay it to rest, then it becomes a big issue. I'm talking about Stefan Diggs and here's the other thing. Once again, what is he so unhappy about? You just got paid last year in 16 games, you were targeted 154 times, you had 108 catches and you had 1,429 yards and 11 touchdowns. Most touchdowns in your career, that is the second most yards you've ever put up in a single season and your catches, it's the second most you've ever put up in a season.

Targets, third most. What are you so upset about? And if it's just because you're upset that the team's not getting to a Super Bowl and you think some things need to change, okay, but how did you help this situation? You only exacerbated today because you should get in there and you should put your best foot forward to making this thing work. And just leaving today, whether you did it out of frustration and told someone you did it out of frustration and didn't tell anyone, doesn't help solve the problem. So yes, Diggs is the one that's at fault here, but I understand what Mark was saying in McDermott, you added some fuel to the fire today by going out there and saying you're very concerned they're not taking any other questions after that.