ORCHARD PARK - Stefon Diggs met with reporters Tuesday in Houston for the first time since the Buffalo Bills traded him to the Texans, and it was all flowers and candies for his old quarterback, Josh Allen.

“I feel like he was an intricate piece in my career,” Diggs said. “When I got to Buffalo, Josh was … Josh is still my guy. He really embraced me, kind of had the southern hospitality. So for me, he embraced me, spent a lot of time, and I probably wouldn’t be right here if it wasn’t for him. I got a lot of love for that boy. Y’all give him a hug and a kiss for me.”

Diggs’ comments followed right along the path Allen paved back in April when he spoke about his former teammate and their time together.

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“It’s definitely hard to part ways with a guy that’s been very instrumental in our success here over the last four years,” Allen said. “I can’t thank him enough for when he came in and how hard he worked and what he taught me along the years. I’ll always love that guy like a brother and I wish him nothing but the best.”

So, take that, all you conspiracy theorists who believed there was a rift between the two superstars.

Look, both men were speaking to a horde of reporters armed with digital recorders and cameras when these comments were made, so sure, it could have all been a show to hide some lingering animosity between the two. But I refuse to believe that.

These two have deep respect for each other, they understand that they needed each other at a key point in their respective careers, and while the end result did not yield an AFC championship or a Super Bowl victory, their relationship sent both of them soaring.

Stefon Diggs is diva on the decline: 3 reasons Bills trade was the right move

Diggs wanted out of Minnesota and was looking to take his game to the next level when Brandon Beane acquired from Minnesota in the spring of 2020. And Allen was heading into his third NFL season, desperately needing a go-to target to pump life into Buffalo’s good but not great offense.

Four years later, their connection proved to be one of the most lethal in the NFL and the Bills won four straight AFC East titles with an offense that was regularly among the best in the league. Oh, not to mention they benefited financially in the most spectacular of ways.

“My lasting memory of Stef will be the receiver that helped me become the quarterback that I am today and I’ll always thank him for that,” Allen said. “He meant a lot. You look at the statistics, they don’t lie, numbers don’t lie.”

They don’t. In his four years in Buffalo, Diggs caught the second-most passes on the most targets of any receiver in the NFL and while Pro Bowl invitations are a pretty meaningless thing, Diggs had never been voted in during his time with the Vikings, but he was after all four seasons he was with the Bills.

What happened in 2023 wasn’t an Allen-Diggs issue; it was a matter of Diggs’ role changing following the removal of offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and the promotion of Joe Brady. Brady tried to diversify the offense and while he wasn’t actively plotting to keep the ball away from Diggs, he did lean on the running game a bit more than his predecessor, and he also encouraged Allen to use his other weapons and not try to force the ball to Diggs which is why Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid emerged in the second half of the season.

Also, there’s this: Diggs is in a gradual career decline at the age of 30, and the simple truth was that in the second half of 2023, he ran into some tough defensive backs who held him in check and thus his numbers plummeted.

Tuesday, he didn’t say that he believes he’s on the downside - he’ll never say that - nor will he concede that he struggled against tougher competition, but he did say, “Throughout the season, had some ups and downs, especially after the first eight. We had coaching shifting and different things going different ways, differences scheme-wise, schematic, and the ups and downs of it. It’s always a balance. It’s not my job to call the plays. I just got to get open and catch it. For me, it’s not something I would worry about.”

Yeah, but it seems like he did. He was not happy with how things were changing for him and by the end of the season, especially after he dropped a very catchable deep ball on what proved to be the final drive of his Bills’ career in the playoff loss to the Chiefs, he admitted that he saw the writing on the wall and Buffalo might look to deal him.

Some of that writing on that wall was Diggs’ handiwork, though. His cryptic social media posts, which dated back to the bitter end of 2022, plus all the silliness of that offseason when he blew off the Bills’ OTAs, became a thorn in Beane’s side and it just felt like the Bills were done with the drama and saw a three-pronged opportunity staring back at them.

First, they could get an asset in return for Diggs and that proved to be a second-round pick in 2025; second, they could clean up their payroll situation in 2025 and beyond by shedding tens of millions in Diggs’ cap hits; and last, this was a moment they could turn the page and allow players like Kincaid, Shakir, James Cook, and maybe Curtis Samuel become the primary weapons for Allen.

“Obviously, at the end of the season, there was a lot of gray area as far as like what I was going to do, as far as whether I was going to be in Buffalo or not,” Diggs said. “You kind of feel it in the air a little bit, especially in personal feelings. But for me, when I got traded, obviously, I was happy. I was in a good place. I told God to light my path, and here I am (in Houston), so he makes no mistakes. I’m standing firm in that.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Stefon Diggs speaks about trade from Bills, says he loves Josh Allen