Thursday Patriots Notebook 9/4: Diggs Fires Back at Criticism, Three Players on Injury Report
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Some Patriots news and notes on this Thursday:
1) Diggs takes offense to media comments: Veteran Stefon Diggs has had an interesting start to his time in New England, and on Wednesday, he took a moment to try and reset himself with the local media.
After a somewhat turbulent spring and some moments in the summer that led to speculation about his fit from a culture standpoint with the team, there was actually some speculation on more than one occasion about whether or not Diggs might even make it out of camp.
Apparently, Diggs has heard the talk, and he did his best to try and clear the air as he met with reporters.
“I appreciate you all taking the time out,” said Diggs on Wednesday. “Before we start, you mind if I have a little conversation with you all? Obviously, I haven’t talked much in camp. It’s nice to see everybody here. I appreciate you all. I appreciate your patience. I just try to take this time to be focused, get my mind right, get my body right, come into camp with the right mindset. Physically and mentally, it’s always a thing in camp, so I just needed that time. So I appreciate you all having patience with me.”
“But I do want to address some things that happened throughout camp. Obviously, I look at the media as a whole, and I want to approach this thing as professional as possible. So Phil [Perry] and Tom [Curran], if I don’t want to mistakenly or say the wrong names. But my words, I had some conversations and I had some interviews throughout camp, and some of my words were misconstrued. I don’t know, me talking to another individual, I don’t know, it was kind of regurgitated in another way. Or taken out of context. I think I was referred to as a pain in the a**. I hate pain in the posterior, but I’m going to say exactly what it really was.”
“Obviously, I don’t want to come across as that. I’m going to say this. I want to be very clear. I’m an adult. I apologize. I’m not up here to ego trip. I’m not up here to rub anybody the wrong way or say anything for clickbait. If I rub anybody the wrong way, I really want to apologize. Moving forward, obviously, we have a media to player relationship. As professional as I can be, I want to make myself available each and every week. I obviously don’t want to make this thing abrasive. It can be as seamless as possible, and it also can be abrasive. I don’t want to get up here and not answer questions or make anybody feel uncomfortable. Obviously, it’s a world we live in. If somebody calls you an a*****e, you start acting like one. No you don’t. I won’t. That’s not me.”
“So I won’t apologize if I ever came across as an a*****e to anybody. But moving forward, I kind of want to get things off on the right foot. We’re going to spend a lot of time together, and I want to give, obviously, a good interview if I’m asked questions. I don’t want to end up giving you the vanilla answers or no answer at all. So moving forward, hopefully this relationship can grow, and we build on something special. Obviously, it’s going to be a long season, so we’re going to spend a lot of time together.”
Both Curran and Perry each went on to apologize to the receiver, with Diggs eventually saying, “Fresh start. Let’s get this show on the road.”
2) Diggs didn’t exactly do himself any favors: The comments Diggs was referring to came during a recent episode of Quick Slants, which aired following Diggs comments to Russini.
“I feel great. I’m pushing the needle always. I’m always on doing more than less,” Diggs told Russini. “We’ll see about week one. I don’t know how I feel about it. We’ll see. Coaches aren’t too excited. I’m not too excited. I’m just trying to take it day by day. So we’ll see, man. It looks like we just don’t know where it’s going to go.”
Diggs’ interview with Russini came back on August 13th ahead of the team’s second preseason game against the Vikings. Curran and Perry discussed the situation on that episode, while also mentioning comments from receivers coach, Todd Downing, who did indicate that Diggs had moments where he wasn’t in the right place.
“We had Todd Downing on Sunday, the wide receiver’s coach, allude to the fact that Diggs has to do more refinement, and he needs to be in the right place at the right time,” said Curran. “Now we had Diggs today alluding to the possibility that he’s done too much and he might be dealing with something. He’s also saying, The coaches feel that way, and I feel that way, and week one’s up in the air. Do we have a guy who’s overextended himself? Do we have a guy who’s not in the right place at the right time and is falling down? There seems to be gathering smoke around Stefan Diggs and the notion that this could turn into an issue.”
“There are little signs that he’s just becoming a bit of a pain in the posterior,” answered Perry. “I asked Mike Vrabel about those very comments that we just played this morning, and he said, ‘Did you really believe that, Phil? Did you really believe those comments? I mean, he’s out here. He’s doing everything. You seem like a smart guy. Did you really believe that?’ I said, ‘Yeah. I mean, he says he might not be ready for week one. Do you have any doubt?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know. We’ll find out when we get to week one. But he’s out here and he’s doing everything.'”
“I mean, for Mike Vrabel to have to be his public relations assistant and tell us what he really meant in his commentary to a member of the national media. I don’t know if that hurts Mike Vrabel or if he’s just looking to go back and forth with somebody in the media. But between Downing’s comments, between his what I would call, quiet performance this camp, Vrabel’s comments this morning, and the fact that Tom, he is not planning, is my understanding, on talking to the local media until he plays in a game. So maybe that’ll happen this Saturday. I have my doubts. It all adds up to there’s a lot going on with this guy for a guy who doesn’t look like a number one receiver.”
For those who want to condemn Perry and Curran, these are two guys who don’t normally report anything without some substance behind it. They also weren’t alone in their speculation. Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal also went so far earlier this summer as to suggest the club might even trade Diggs due to the concern they seemed to still have with him at the time.
“We talked about it last time. If they’re not crazy about him, could he be trade bait, that thing?” said Bedard. “I leave that open. But somebody’s got to be coming in. If Diggs is going out, somebody’s got to be coming in.”
As a result, based on all of this, it sounds like there was at least enough going on internally where Diggs might not have been on solid footing during some moments this preseason. Between the powdered substance incident over Memorial Day weekend and how things played out at various points this summer, there were probably some moments where someone internally expressed concern, and those concerns were then clearly aired publicly.
Granted, maybe the terminology could have been better, and both Curran and Perry would likely admit that. But to say there was nothing behind those concerns, especially given they weren’t on an island with them, probably isn’t accurate. Instead, it likely tells you that Diggs had moments where his actions might not have been what the team was hoping for from him.
For now, as Diggs said, the page is turned, and he’ll hopefully be judged on his actions on the field in the coming months. For the Patriots’ sake, one can only hope that they’re rewarded for their patience with him.
3) Three players on the injury report to start the week: The Patriots released their first injury report of 2025, and several names appeared with that group on Wednesday.
Veteran cornerback Christian Gonzalez didn’t participate, while fellow cornerback Charles Woods (Concussion/Groin) was limited, and rookie wideout Efton Chism (Knee) was a full participant.
Vrabel addressed Gonzalez’s situation on Wednesday, adding that while he’s missed time, he’s still pleased with where he’s been from a mental standpoint.
“I do like where he’s at from an engagement standpoint,” said Vrabel. “We’ve been through this with other players and like where he’s at from that standpoint. In the meetings, locked in. Following along a practice, which is difficult to think that a player that’s not in there can follow along”
“I’ve been through that as a player and a coach, and I think he’s done a nice job of being able to do that.”
4) Maye excited to get started: Drake Maye spoke to the media on Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s game, and he’s looking forward to the season getting underway.
Under new offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, the second-year quarterback will likely be in situations where they’ll be looking for him to get the ball out of his hands quickly, which should help keep some of the pressure away from him.
Maye said that it’s a part of the offense he’s comfortable with, and he’s confident ahead of Sunday’s opener against the Raiders.
“I think that’s part of what we come out here and practice for is knowing check downs and knowing, ‘Hey, my first look, if they’re giving it to me, take it,'” said Maye. “I think that’s part of playing quarterback in this league, finding completions.”
“I feel confident in myself. I feel like, at times last year, when I got the ball out on time and got the ball to the right guy, we moved the ball well. I think just trying to start off this season with that mindset. And like I said, stay ahead of the chains and do my part and find the completions and not holding the ball.”
One other thing that stood out is how confident Maye is in rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson, not only as an weapon on offense, but how well Henderson helps out in pass protection.
That was something Maye mentioned Wednesday, and knowing how good the rookie is from that standpoint has Maye feeling a little more at ease back there.
“Yeah, I think protection-wise,you saw it in college,” said Maye. “I think just continuing to the NFL, I think he wants to protect me. I think that’s something that they’ve established in the running back room of wanting to be good and pass [protection].”
“It’s something that jumps off the tape. I think, especially, those O’Linemen and the guys, quarterbacks, and other guys in the room, really respect a running back when they go up there in the midst of the O-line and give somebody a good pop and give a linebacker a good pop or pass off a game. It’s really impressive. I think in the passing game, just do my best job of continuing to work with him and give him the ball in space and seeing what he’s seeing in zone coverage or option routes or things like that.
“So I think he’s a weapon. I think my best thing is to give him the ball in space and get it to guys that are better running than I am. That’s for sure.”
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To me the media did twist d things into a drama regards Diggs starting week one. And who said the Patriots are shipping him out, or he’s been a pain the arse? The media. If you want to make a story on the pink powder, go for it. Diggs earned that one. Otherwise, no.