New England Patriots - NESN.com
The Stefon Diggs era in New England is off to an inauspicious start, and first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has a decision to make.
Diggs was noticeably absent from OTAs this week at Gillette Stadium after the receiver was seen partying on a boat in videos that surfaced earlier in the week. Most troubling for the Patriots and perhaps Diggs was the former Pro Bowler was seen with some sort of pink powdery substance while on camera.
Vrabel tried to put out the fire the best he could when meeting with reporters, but it sounds like the story might not end there. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer went on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Friday and gave his best read on where things stand with Diggs and the Patriots.
“I sort of think all things are on the table, and I think it’s really, to me at least, going to boil down to what Stef told Vrabel and how believable it was,” Breer said on “Toucher and Hardy” on Friday. ‘Because I think it’s going to be hard for anybody — the league’s going to look into this, and they’re going to hit a dead end because they’re not going to be able to prove what’s in the bag. There’s no way for them to prove what was in the bag. So then it’s up to the team to make a decision.”
The Patriots signed Diggs to a three-year, $63.5 million deal earlier in the offseason. The contract reportedly included a $12 million signing bonus as part of $25 million guaranteed. Breer believes that if the Patriots try to move on from Diggs and get back some of that money, they have to act quickly.
“If the team wants to recoup any of the money, they have to cut him right away,” Breer continued. “Because you can’t hold him on the roster for two weeks and then decide OK, we’re done with you then. … My guess would be the reason he wasn’t at practice the other day might be because (Vrabel) told him to stay away, and they’re sorting through everything now.”
Cutting Diggs doesn’t feel like the most likely outcome. As Breer notes, there’s no real proof of anything, and if it does come down to the wideout’s ability to convince the head coach he wasn’t in the wrong, he might get some leniency — especially with this happening in the offseason.
Then again, Vrabel might feel like he needs to set a tone early on, and it would be easier to do that with an aging wideout coming back from a torn ACL than an established Foxboro veteran, for example. Regardless, if Breer’s inclination is accurate, we could know the answer sooner rather than later.
