The New England Patriots have made some crucial upgrades over the offseason after coming up short in Super Bowl LX. Perhaps the area where they have made the biggest improvements is the wide receiver position, as the team swung a blockbuster trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for A.J. Brown, while also signing Romeo Doubs in free agency.
Before either of these guys arrived in town, though, the Pats decided to move on from their No. 1 wide receiver in 2025, Stefon Diggs. To this point, Diggs has not managed to find a new home in the NFL, although that figures to change in the near future. However, if you ask NFL insider Mike Florio, teams should be skeptical of Diggs when it comes to potentially inking him to a deal on the open market.
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After striking out on their top targets last offseason, the Patriots eventually settled for Diggs and signed him to a three-year, $69 million contract. The deal was risky, as Diggs was recovering from a torn ACL at the time. Beyond that, he’s also dealt with off-field issues throughout his career that could have conceivably popped up and caused problems for New England.
Instead, Diggs ended up being a perfect fit for the Pats. He suited up in all 17 games for the team, catching 85 passes for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns, with his strong production earning him a fifth-place finish in the Comeback Player of the Year Award. And yet, with Diggs being unwilling to restructure his contract, the front office decided to move on from him ahead of the start of free agency.
Now that Brown and Doubs are around, letting go of Diggs makes sense, but it’s been somewhat surprising to see him remain on the open market for as long as he has. Diggs seems to be waiting for the right opportunity to pop up, but Florio recently made some comments that could help indicate why teams seem to be so wary of signing him.
“Diggs is a guy who firmly believes that the path to winning includes getting me involved and keeping me involved,” Florio said on “PFT PM.” “If we’re not winning and I’m not involved, that means that if you would involve me, we’d be winning … You’ve got to be willing at this stage of Diggs’ career to tolerate the possibility that he’s not going to be happy.”
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GettyStill unsigned, former Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs made a bold claim about NFL wide receivers as he continues searching for his next team.
In recent years, it’s become more and more common for veteran players to wait out training camp before signing in free agency, as they prefer to preserve their bodies for the rigors of a full season of football. Diggs is likely in that boat to an extent, but it’s clear that his off-field issues, which now are headlined by a man accusing him of sexual assault, are still a concern.
For a point in time, it was fair to wonder if the Patriots would reunite with Diggs in free agency, but if they wanted to keep him around, they wouldn’t have released him in the first place. While Diggs continues to search for a new landing spot in the NFL, New England is set to enter training camp with one of its deepest wide receiver depth charts in recent memory.
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