Insider says to expect more trades for star WRs between now and the draft

When the Buffalo Bills shipped disgruntled receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans nearly two weeks ago, they may have unknowingly started a trend.

According to a report from Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post, several anonymous general managers and front-office executives indicated there could be multiple trades involving star wide receivers before the conclusion of the 2024 NFL Draft.

“More of them will go,” one GM told La Canfora. “…Would you rather do what [Texans GM Nick Caserio] just did or try to outbid bad teams with more cap space than they know how to burn to try to get [an unrestricted free agent]? That’s kind of Econ 101, isn’t it?”

A second executive told La Canfora that some teams prefer to trade for receivers who are considered an addition by subtraction to their current teams (like Diggs in Buffalo) — players who have term left on their contract at a fixed rate coming from situations where another team has already paid a bulk of their guaranteed money or signing bonus.

La Canfora lists San Francisco’s Brandon Aiyuk, Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins, Denver’s Courtland Sutton, Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf and Las Vegas’ Davante Adams as the big names to watch.

Aiyuk has been at the center of trade speculation since the conclusion of Super Bowl LVIII in early February. There was also speculation that the 49ers tried to trade Aiyuk to the Jacksonville Jaguars for the 17th overall pick in the 2024 draft and wide receiver Zay Jones, but a deal never materialized.

The 26-year-old Aiyuk recently unfollowed the 49ers on social media, and there were rumblings over the weekend he asked to be traded, though his agent denied those reports.