The New England Patriots finally got a top wide receiver when they signed Stefon Diggs to a three-year, $69 million contract on Tuesday night. The deal gives Diggs a place where he can be the alpha receiver and also become a top target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye.
The partnership seems to have plenty of benefits as Diggs makes his way to Foxborough. But there seems to be some added incentive after the 31-year-old made a post on social media moments after the news spread across the internet.
New Patriots WR Stefon Diggs Has Villainous Intentions in Return to AFC East
Diggs made the post on his Instagram account with a picture of Patrick Starfish from the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. According to Sideshow, the meme shows Patrick laughing maniacally and is used for feelings of villainy or nefarious satisfaction. It also signals that evil intentions are going exactly according to plan, which feels like a great description of Diggs’s new home.
A former All-Pro receiver, Diggs is the unquestioned top target in New England. The Patriots tried to land Chris Godwin earlier this offseason but Diggs is the more consistent player, racking up six straight 1,000-yard seasons before tearing his ACL midway through last year’s campaign with the Houston Texans.
There is also little standing in the way of targets with DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte projected as fellow starters entering next season. Even if New England adds a rookie in next month’s draft, Diggs should be a lock to get back to the 161 targets per season he averaged in his four years with the Buffalo Bills.
Oh, did we mention the Bills? Well at this time a year ago, the Bills traded Diggs to the Houston Texans believing that he was a player in decline. Diggs also showed signs of discontent including screaming at quarterback Josh Allen during a playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo took on the largest non-QB dead money hit in NFL history ($31 million) to get him out of western New York.
“For a long time, they put up with the passive-aggressive comments, with the All-Pro little brother insulting them and Josh Allen, with other NFL friends proclaiming he deserved better than Buffalo,” The Athletic’s Tim Graham wrote at the time of the trade to Houston. “They endured Diggs’ refusal to ever push back on the chirping. …Stefon Diggs stopped being ‘HIM’ halfway through 2023, right about the time Trevon Diggs, a Dallas Cowboys cornerback, once again took to social media to declare ‘Man 14 (his big brother’s jersey number) gotta get up outta there,’ followed by the exhausted and crying emojis. Also around that time, Buffalo’s offense started to operate like it didn’t care whether No. 14 got up outta there or not.”
If you’re keeping score at home, it’s clear why Diggs won free agency. He got a big, multi-year deal from a team desperate for a No. 1 option. He has a big-armed quarterback that can get him the ball similar to the way Allen did in Buffalo. And he gets to face the team that declared him the problem twice a year in his own personal revenge tour.
It’s a good reason why Diggs is probably laughing like his cartoon counterpart and has big plans for his tenure with the Patriots.