The last few days, the last few weeks really, have been a whirlwind, if you're a Houston Texans fan. Together, general manager Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryans have given a facelift to a roster that was already pretty attractive to begin with. Joe Mixon, Danielle Hunter, Stefon Diggs — these are Pro Bowl caliber players, all of whom would've been pipe dreams to become Texans a year ago.

However, a year ago may as well be ten years ago. This is a new era of Houston Texans football, an era where marquee players are here, and others will come in the future. Perhaps there are a couple more to come this off-season, but undoubtedly, as long as C.J. Stroud is this team's quarterback, Houston will be a destination for free agents or disgruntled players from other teams.

Speaking of which, Stefon Diggs is now a Houston Texan, as we all know. On the heels of the trade that shook the NFL landscape last week — Diggs to the Texans (along with a 5th and 6th round pick) for a 2025 2nd round pick — the Texans decided to essentially tear up the final three years of Diggs contract, none of which were guaranteed, tack on a few million bucks to 2024, and make Diggs' deal with the Texans a one year, $22 million year.

So now Diggs is in a contract season with the Texans. He can become a free agent after the season is over. Many Texan fans found this confusing, and a few allowed this development to flip their opinion on the deal from "thumbs up" to "thumbs down," or at best, "thumbs in the middle."

Personally, I don't mind this decision at all. Let's examine this, and dig into a few other thoughts on this Stefon Diggs situation:

The Texans want the best version of Stefon Diggs
Look, the reason Diggs was even available in the first place is because he had become a pain in the ass behind the scenes in Buffalo. He became a Bill in 2020, because he was a win in the ass in Minnesota. In short, Diggs can be a bit of a pain in the ass. The Texans, I believe, are thinking that if Diggs is in a "prove it" type of situation, in a contract year, he will be on his best behavior. For those of you wondering why the Texans would just punt on three more years of team control over Diggs, the reality of NFL contracts (and sports in general these days) is that if an athlete wants to cause enough turmoil, then the stickiness of contracts become diminished, if not moot. In other words, if Diggs has a huge 2024, he would have been agitating for a pay raise anyway. Hey, if it turns out both sides are comfortable with something longer term, they have all season in 2024 to come up with something.

New Diggs 🏡 pic.twitter.com/PJqj7Vxlkt

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) April 4, 2024

The structure of the deal indicates Nick Caserio is still cooking up more deals
Courtesy of Field Yates of ESPN.com, here is how the Texans are structuring Stefon Diggs' one year contract for 2024: 

Here is how Stefon Diggs' revised deal with the Texans breaks down:

Signing bonus: $20.805M
Base salary: $1.21M
Offseason workout bonus: $250K
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $255K
2024 cap hit: $5.876M

The deal includes 4 void years.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 5, 2024

So what does that tweet mean? Well, turning most of Diggs' salary into signing bonus, and one very lerge check, allows the Texans to cram about $16 million into those four "void years" on the deal. (Void years are essentially phony years that allow teams to park salary cap money so it doesn't hit THIS season, but ti does hit (and hit HARD) eventually. It's basically the salary cap version of a credit card. You pay the piper at some point. In plain English, since Diggs only counts about $6 million against this season's cap, Caserio may still be cooking up something else for this season. Perhaps it's another free agent, or maybe a Nico Collins extension. We shall see.

There will be no compensatory pick for the Texans, if Diggs leaves after 2024
There was some conjecture out there that the reason Caserio decided to just de facto make Diggs' contract a one year deal was so that, if Diggs left after the season in free agency, the Texans would get a 2026 compensatory draft pick in the free agency comp pick formula. Well, that will not be the case. When you redo someone's deal in the fashion the Texans did Diggs' deal, that player's leaving is no longer part of the compensatory formula. Those are the rules. Don't shoot the messenger.

Stefon Diggs is already playing with his new friends
The footage in the tweets below is from the last few days. Always heartwarming to see the new kid in town making friends, isn't it?

Special teams. Special plays. Special players. ☝️ pic.twitter.com/ECjP6AkP8L

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) April 7, 2024

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