On Wednesday, former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs reportedly signed a three-year contract worth $69 million with the New England Patriots, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
After spending the 2024 season with the Houston Texans, Diggs will be joining a Patriots team that is looking to get back to competing for the top of the AFC East under new head coach Mike Vrabel.
Many New England fans are excited about the All-Pro receiver joining their favorite team, but based on some of his comments and actions in the past, that excitement could quickly fade away after the first few weeks of the upcoming season.
New England Patriots offense could quickly make former Minnesota Vikings WR Stefon Diggs very unhappy
Back in 2020, Diggs forced Minnesota to trade him to the Buffalo Bills after spending the first five years of his pro career in the Twin Cities. A few months after the deal was completed, the veteran receiver revealed why he wanted the Vikings to ship him elsewhere.
"[The Vikings] were kind of gearing towards a run-heavy [offense] at that time. I didn't know it going in. I didn't know it was going to be that way. They only would allow me to do so much. In my eyes, it wasn't going to be in the best interest of my career."
Then, in 2023, the Bills made some adjustments to their offense in the second half of the season that resulted in them running the ball more and throwing less to Diggs. The adjustments translated to success for Buffalo, but the receiver's production slowed, and this ultimately led to him forcing the Bills to trade him to the Texans during the 2024 offseason.
Are we able to sense the theme here? Everything is all rainbows and unicorns for Diggs until his team decides it needs to cut his targets and have their offense run the ball more in order to achieve more success. And even if these changes lead to more wins for his team, Diggs is still unhappy due to his numbers taking a hit.
With this being said, he's about to join a Patriots offense that could potentially remind him of what he hated the most about Buffalo and Minnesota's offenses during the end of his tenures with those franchises.
Before getting hired by New England earlier this year, Vrabel spent six years as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans. During those six years, the Titans ranked among the top-11 teams in the NFL in rushing attempts and 30th or worse in passing attempts five times.
One would assume Vrabel would like the Patriots to lean on their rushing attack next season, especially with the offense being led by a young starting quarterback in Drake Maye. New England is going to want to make things as easy as possible for Maye in 2025, and utilizing a strong run game is a great way to do that.
If this ends up being the case and Diggs spends more time run blocking than running routes, will he become the center of attention inside the Patriots locker room for all the wrong reasons? New England fans would like to think that won't be the case, but unfortunately for them, his new home has all of the makings of something that could potentially turn into a gigantic disaster.