The Patriots are rebuilding, which means they can’t fix every single issue in a day, week, month or even an entire offseason.
Give New England credit for this, though. The franchise will be improved across the board entering 2025, and the nightmare run of 2023 through 2024 is behind them. In a lot of ways, the reported acquisition of former All-Pro receiver Stefon Diggs on Tuesday is the bow on a necessary free-agent blitz.
The reported Diggs signing also encapsulates the bigger-picture challenge facing the Patriots. Once he gets on the field, assuming he’s fully recovered from a torn ACL, he will make their offense better. Diggs has been productive everywhere he has played. He instantly makes one of the worst receiver rooms over the last two seasons much better.
That’s a short-term improvement and isn’t likely anything more than that. And while signing someone with the name value and pedigree of Diggs is red meat to a fanbase starving for success, it’s simply not enough for long-term sustained success at the position. Anyone who believes the Patriots don’t need to draft a receiver (or two) at next month’s NFL draft in Green Bay are solely mistaken.
In some ways, signing Diggs to a contract that could be worth up to $69 million over the next three seasons only reinforces the notion the Patriots need to devote draft capital to the position. It’s a manageable guaranteed number at $26 million, but it’s still a major chunk of change for a 31-year-old receiver five months removed from a torn ACL who also happens to have a complicated past with more than one of his former teams.
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That’s the price teams have to pay when they fail to draft and develop young talent at the receiver position. After failing to trade up for a quarterback, the Giants opted to grab Malik Nabers at No. 6 in the 2024 draft, a few years after signing Kenny Golladay to maybe the worst receiver deal in NFL history (four years, $72 million with $37 million guaranteed). The Rams tried to fit a square peg into a round hole by signing Allen Robinson to a three-year, $46.5 million deal (with more than $30 million guaranteed). The only reason they were able to live to tell about it and felt comfortable trading him after just one season was their ability to turn Cooper Kupp (2017 third-round pick) and Puka Nacua (2023 fifth-rounder) into legitimate studs. (That belief in scouting, drafting and development is probably why LA doesn’t mind letting the 31-year-old Kupp walk to a division rival for $45 million over three years with $17.5 million guaranteed.)
A big reason the hit rate is so checkered at the position is that teams aren’t letting the actual elite receivers get to market. That same line of thinking has also ballooned the price to acquire impact receivers in trades.
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Because the Patriots have been relatively hesitant to spend in recent seasons, Diggs’ deal — even if it flops — probably won’t hurt them too badly. It’s a relatively team-friendly deal. But shelling out big money and chasing the market the way the Patriots have this offseason is not conducive to long-term success. As the Patriots have learned from their failed pursuit of Calvin Ridley, the cost of impact receivers continues to rise. Having to throw money and cap space at that position could cost the Patriots an opportunity to make deals for players at positions with higher returns on investments (think Myles Garrett, for example).
Then there’s the Drake Maye of it all. He looks like the real deal. The Patriots need to give him what he needs to flourish, especially while he’s still on his rookie deal. Again, Diggs is a short-term step in that regard, but it feels like a stretch to think the 2027 Patriots will be contending for a Super Bowl with an offense primarily driven by a Maye-to-Diggs connection. Chances are, the Patroits’ best receiver when Maye’s prime intersects with his relative affordability isn’t yet on the roster.
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The key to the Patriots’ success will be balancing those short- and long-term priorities, and they can satisfy both by finally getting it right with the receiver position in the draft, regardless of how good Diggs might be.
Featured image via Thomas Shea/Imagn Images
