The New England Patriots took a big swing when they acquired veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs this offseason, as the former Maryland Terrapins standout agreed to a three-year, $69 million contract with the organization in March of 2025.
Unfortunately, most of the discourse concerning Diggs of late has been focused more on what he was doing off the field rather than what Mike Vrabel, Josh McDaniels, and the Patriots' brain trust believe he can contribute to the team's success when the ball is in their hands.
Yes, we're referring to the infamous boat video, which was shared over Memorial Day weekend. While outsiders were ready to throw Diggs under the bus, it appears as though the All-Pro wide receiver has learned from this experience and is already showing growth as a player.
Stefon Diggs Shows Growth After 1st Patriots Slip-Up
Diggs' professional and mature approach to this situation was on full display during his time with the media at the team's minicamp on Tuesday. The words of wisdom shared by Vrabel were heard loud and clear by Diggs as he echoed the first-year Patriots head coach's stance when discussing the incident in question.
“I want to be as candid with you as possible, but I kind of have a thing where I don’t talk about my personal life with people I don’t know personally," Diggs stated Tuesday, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. "I had a conversation with Vrabel, obviously, and I’ll echo everything he said, hoping everybody is making good decisions. And I had a conversation with people in the building as well. So everything else is everything else. The particulars are all internal.”
Dealing with drama is nothing new for Diggs, as he went through issues with the Buffalo Bills before publicly demanding a trade. While the wideout was happy to air his grievances with the Bills through the media, the approach he is taking to this drama shows that he has learned from those past mistakes.
Would Vrabel and the rest of the organization wish for Diggs to learn this lesson a different way? There is no doubt about it. What's done is done, though, and now Diggs is taking the "Patriot Way" to heart and putting the team ahead of himself.
If things stay that way, the veteran will be the type of difference-maker on the offensive side of the ball the Patriots wanted him to be when signing him to that contract.