Report: Patriots were finalist in Stefon Diggs sweepstakes
98.5 The Sports Hub staff report
Long before Stefon Diggs left Minnesota and immediately set Bills receiving records, the sweepstakes for the ultra-talented wideout came down to the Bills and New England Patriots, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
From Rapoport:
Before Minnesota received four picks — including a first-round pick — from Buffalo for the playmaker, the Vikings called New England to give them a chance to match or improve the offer. When Bill Belichick and the Patriots declined, Diggs was off to the Bills.
The package that the Patriots refused to match featured the aforementioned first-round pick, which the Vikings used to select wideout Justin Jefferson at No. 22 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, as well as three other picks, including a fifth-round and sixth-round pick in last year’s draft along with a 2021 fourth-round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The timeline is telling here, too, as the Bills acquired Diggs on Mar. 16, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady officially signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the next day. You’d have to imagine that at that point the Patriots knew that they were moving on from Brady (or that Brady was moving on from them), and paying that premium for Diggs would not have been worth it when you looked at the Patriots’ options at quarterback, which at the time were Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham, and ultimately ended with Cam Newton as the team’s starting quarterback in a seven-win 2020 season.
The flip side to that is perhaps Brady, who joined a Bucs team stacked with weapons at wideout and is now off to his 10th Super Bowl appearance, is more inclined to stay with the Patriots if Diggs, who was linked to the Patriots for months before his move to Buffalo, is in Foxborough.
But that didn’t happen, and Diggs instead went to Buffalo, where he totaled 127 catches, 1,535 yards, and eight touchdowns in 16 games for the Bills. The Patriots’ top threat at wideout (Jakobi Meyers), meanwhile, topped out at 59 catches and 729 yards, while the wide receiver position totaled just four receiving touchdowns in total by the year’s end.
Receiver remains an area of need for the Patriots in 2021, and the Patriots are equipped to address it, with a plethora of draft picks to their name and over $60 million in available cap space this offseason.
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