Wide receiver Stefon Diggs met the media as a member of the Patriots for the first time on Friday and his new quarterback was an early topic of conversation in his press conference.
Drake Maye had a good rookie season in New England and showed an ability to make plays with both his arm and his legs for a Patriots team that was short on playmakers. Diggs played with another quarterback who had similar skills when he was in Buffalo and Josh Allen’s name came up when Diggs was asked about his thoughts on Maye.
“I’m excited,” Diggs said. “I really look forward to it. It’s crazy because when you ask around, he has a lot of similarities — people say through the grapevine, he acts a lot like Josh. That was my guy, so I look forward to meeting and connecting with him.”
Diggs was also asked what role he thinks he can play in Maye’s continued development as an NFL player.
“Seeing that I got the experience, I’ve been doing this for ten and a half years — I always add the half now — but I’ve played with a lot of quarterbacks,” Diggs said. “I’ve been around a lot of quarterbacks, so learning the quarterback, getting to know him, spending more time with him. Once you know somebody on a more personal level, I feel like it’s a lot of carry-over to the field, whether they’re risk-takers or like to play aggressive, like to play smart, and just honing in on what he’s good at. We played him last year. He shows a lot of fight. He got that fiery quarterback, ‘I want to win’ mindset. That’s something that I get excited about and love to be around. But, as far as his development as a quarterback, I feel like that’s not really too much of my job. My job is to get up and catch the ball. I just look forward to getting back out there and being one of the weapons for him.”
Diggs noted that he was on pace for around 100 catches and 1,000 receiving yards when he tore his ACL midway through last season before saying he is looking forward to “getting back on track.” If that looks like the Diggs who played with Allen in Buffalo, the Patriots offense should look a lot better in 2025.
