The Chicago Bears humiliated the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. That may sound a bit over the top, but it's true. Going into that game, the Vikings couldn't have asked for a better string of breaks. Before the game, three key starters for the Bears in Taylor Gabriel, Akiem Hicks, and Roquan Smith were all declared out. Then just a few plays into the game, Mitch Trubisky goes down with a dislocated shoulder. To players like Stefon Diggs and others on the Vikings sideline, this must've looked perfect.
Then the rest of the game happened. Things didn't take long to get ugly. Even after Trubisky went down, backup QB Chase Daniel led the Bears offense right down the field for a touchdown. That set the tone. Then on their first offensive series, Minnesota started out well but then ended the drive with two runs for no gain and missed deep ball to Adam Thielen. They were never able to find a rhythm after that.
Chicago controlled the game throughout the rest of the afternoon, building a commanding 16-0 lead. Minnesota managed a garbage time touchdown to make it 16-6 but that was it. The Bears won, sending the Vikings to a 2-2 start to the season and 0-2 in the division. Players were upset after the game at how poorly the team played. None more so than the wide receivers. Thielen spoke out on the stubborn refusal to not throw the ball more given how poor the run game was going.
Diggs? He took it a step further by not showing up for practice when the next week began. This led to speculation that the receiver was disenchanted with the organization and wanted out via trade. While the Vikings swiftly quashed such rumor, Diggs' did no such thing when asked about his absence upon returning on Thursday.
Stefon Diggs is fuming in conservative new offense
One of the things head coach Mike Zimmer wanted to be done this offseason was to get the running game going. That is a big reason why the team hired Gary Kubiak as assistant head coach. The longtime offensive coach has a well-established reputation for developing good rushing attacks. Unfortunately, this has come at the expense of the Vikings' talented receivers. Diggs for his part has been targeted 19 times through four games. That's an average of 4.75 times per game.
By contrast, in 2018 he was targeted a total of 149 times. That's an average of 9.31 per game. So yeah. It's not hard to understand why he might be chaffing in this new offense. Especially since it's not achieving the desired results of getting the Vikings more wins. So from his perspective, he's sacrificed over half the targets he was getting from a year ago for nothing. It's not hard to imagine why this would make him so upset.
Minnesota is under no obligation to bow to these trade demands too. Diggs is locked under contract until 2023. So unless he's willing to go to Antonio Brown levels of disruption, the reality is the man is trapped in this new reality.
