Road to WR1: Stefon Diggs

Stefon Diggs will begin the 2024 season with his third different team but is still widely regarded as one of the top receivers in fantasy football. With multiple top-five finishes but no WR1 season to his name, Diggs has a chance to break through in his 10th year as a professional with his new team.

After spending the last four seasons in Buffalo with Josh Allen, Diggs was traded in the 2024 offseason for a second-round pick to the Houston Texans. While the transaction takes the star wideout away from Allen, the reigning QB1, he will now get a chance to play with rising star CJ Stroud.

In his final season with Buffalo, Diggs notched 1,183 receiving yards — his sixth straight 1,000-yard season — on 107 receptions for eight touchdowns. His season totals resulted in a WR12 finish in standard leagues and WR9 in PPR. His efforts were a slight decrease from his 2022 campaign which ended with a WR5 standing in standard formats and WR4 in PPR.

Now in Houston, Diggs loses the boost Allen gave him since 2020 but figures to see a minimal change in quarterback efficiency under Stroud. The biggest adjustment for the 30-year-old will likely be playing alongside Nico Collins, who profiles as the best receiver he will share the field with on paper.

How Stefon Diggs can become the fantasy WR1

While his 2023 season was not perfect, Diggs still put together a WR1-tier year as the ninth-best fantasy receiver in PPR leagues. Leaving the dynamic Buffalo offense is not ideal for his seasonal outlook but of the few quarterbacks who can match Josh Allen's statistical production, CJ Stroud looks to be one of them.

Unlike fellow rookie Bryce Young, Stroud was fully unleashed in 2023 to the tune of 4,108 passing yards and 23 touchdowns in just 15 games. His emergence led to Nico Collins finishing as the WR9 in standard leagues; three spots above Diggs. Everything clicked in the Houston offense under the new era of head coach DeMeco Ryans.

For Diggs, the opportunity to succeed will be there in 2024. Though Stroud attempted just 499 passes in 2023 — a far cry from Allen's 579 — he topped 30 attempts in nine of the 15 games he appeared in. Had he played the full season, Stroud would have been on track for the seventh-most attempts in the league.

The primary concern for Diggs will be his age in 2024 as he turns 31 in November. However, reports from training camp have suggested that he is already developing enough chemistry with Stroud to potentially overtake Collins as the team's top receiver. Should that be the case, Diggs will benefit tremendously from the talent of his new teammates that will prevent defenses from shadowing him the way they did in Buffalo.

From a fantasy perspective, Diggs' biggest hurdle to his success will be within his own team, as emerging as Stroud's new favorite target will be essential to an overall WR1 finish. With just two double-digit touchdown seasons to his name, ending the year as the best receiver in fantasy will be a tall task but not one that Diggs hasn't proven himself capable of in the past.