HappyDays

A few quotes I pulled:

As expected.

Not much here, but this snippet caught my eye:

Would everybody leave Einstein alone? He manages a very successful business! He passed his Mensa test with flying colors! He leads a company of 100 men!

This whole press conference feels a bit like damage control, but if everyone is ready to move forward I'm good with it.

McDermott is talking about the situation now.

Presumably this is because today was his first day of practice so they are ramping him up.

Back to your regularly scheduled minicamp reports.

Haven't you heard? Allen doing lunges is what started this whole thing.

You forgot to mention Josh Allen then cheated on Diggs with Russ Brandon. All because he got high on pain meds and couldn't think straight.

Weirdly enough this may be the correct answer. He started on this path as soon as the season was over and now he is uncomfortable and doesn't know how to get back. His attitude kind of spiraled out of control and he feels trapped. That is basically what my source believes. Hopefully more clarity tomorrow.

No but they are hoping to find out tomorrow. Right now they think it is just Diggs being dramatic and turning a small issue into a big one. But they don't know the exact nature of the issue.

My source tells me Diggs will be at minicamp and practicing tomorrow.

I generally agree with your point but I don't necessarily agree that reps are near meaningless right now. Every rep matters. Mahomes is at camp throwing the ball to Kelce right now so that by the time they get to training camp all the rust will already be shaken off. As far as I can tell Allen hasn't thrown a single ball to Diggs since the division loss. Our rivals are getting a head start. The preparation never really stops.

I think his answer was an intentional choice. Why did he handle it badly? A reporter asked him how concerning it was that Diggs wasn't there and he answered truthfully. Of course it is a big concern. If McDermott hadn't said anything it would still be a big story. The bigger issue is that this represents a trend. It isn't like Milano not showing up out of the blue. The last time we saw Diggs he made a spectacle on the sideline of a game, he left the facility without even saying goodbye to teammates, and then he did a whole media circuit where he made not so subtle jabs at the direction of the team. Then he skipped OTAs, and yes he was well within his rights to do so, but he has made no attempt to calm some of the unease around his recent actions at any point this offseason. On the contrary, he has inflamed the unease. We've crossed a line here. I thought everyone would agree that mandatory minicamp was the final straw in this whole saga. I'm surprised some fans are still trying to pretend it isn't a concern. "I don't care until September" I mean come on. The offseason is still part of the journey. What happens now matters.

It isn't Von's job to tell the truth. Every player should give that same answer in public. But the reality is the head coach publicly called out Diggs for missing mandatory minicamp today. It can't be hand waved away.

Probably wouldn't be great if all 53 players were pointing fingers on the sidelines in a playoff game and skipping out on day one of mandatory minicamp. There's a fine line between being an intense competitor and being a distraction. Diggs clearly is being a distraction right now. There's no way to minimize him missing practice today, certainly not after the messaging we saw from him the last time he was in the spotlight. Anyone pretending this isn't a big deal is lying to themselves. It's not the end of the world but it is a thing and nobody knows where it's headed.

I too heard something recently that Allen was not himself during that Bengals game because he went through a bad break up the night before. I didn't give much credence to the theory before but I've heard enough recently that makes me believe it is true.