The Patriots Get Drake Maye the WR1 They've Needed for Years by Signing Stefon Diggs

Whether Stefon Diggs followed Drake Maye first or vice versa is a perfectly valid question. Just like it will be which of them hangs up first when they're FaceTiming each other at the end of the night for the next three years after they become the best quarterback-wide receiver hookup the Patriots have had since Tom Brady-to-Julian Edelman in 2019. Because the deal I've been hoping for:

... has become a reality:

Geronimo. Geronimo. For God and country, Geronimo. 

Part of me doesn't want to accept this as either real, or a good deal. 

I have to confess I spent a few minutes confirming this was, in fact, Schefter reporting and not just some bot or sadist out trying to toy with my emotions. 

And I've been let down before over the past five seasons. In dating terms, I've fallen for the wrong types and been let down. There have been too many Josh Gordons, Juju Smith-Schusters, DeVante Parkers and [shudder] Antonio Browns, where I'd convince myself we finally landed the WR1 we've been lacking, only to expose as a needy, hopelessly naive loser who's going to die alone and be eaten by my cats. And I'll admit I've had my doubts about whether Diggs was really the one to put my hopes in. As I wrote about after he visited Foxboro last week:

First is the obvious fact of his ACL tear and how that checks out.

 

Second, he's got his detractors. At times he's been the prototype of the high maintenance diva wideout, counting his touches and putting his quarterback on blast when he's not getting fed enough:

… Which brings us back to the recurring theme of this offseason so far: Building a culture. Not going for the jingling keys of a freakishly athletic receiver. But making sure that everyone they add to the roster will bring the kind of dependable, sustainable leadership the Dynasty was built on. And that has been utterly lacking over the past two-plus years.

But that doubt is merely the residue of all the failure of all those false hopes of the past half decade. The Patriots would not be investing $26 million guaranteed if they had any doubts about Diggs' ACL tear. 

Nor would they be signing him for the next three years to work with a young QB and a very young, under achieving WR room if they lacked confidence in his leadership. Thanks to trustworthy, second hand knowledge. To quote once again from Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston:

The Patriots would likely already have good intel on what kind of teammate and worker they'll get in Diggs because offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' brother, Ben McDaniels, was Diggs' receivers coach in Houston. Odds are Diggs wouldn't be visiting in the first place if the Patriots felt he wasn't their kind of person. …

"I loved him," said one Vikings staffer who worked with Diggs. "He was a handful, but he could play. You only get to complain if you can produce, and I would think he gets that now."

So he's about to give the Pats two things they've been truly lacking. A productive, outside the numbers wideout opponents have to gameplan for. And a genuine Alpha. A veteran who can establish a baseline of what hard work and preparation are all about. To give Maye someone he can trust while showing Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker how to practice, study, dedicate themselves, put the time in, and above all, fucking produce like professionals. And in doing so, he takes the pressure off the guys who've been miscast as the WRs 1-3 - Kendrick Bourne, Pop Douglas and Kayshon Boutte - and lets them slide back down the depth chart to roles they're more suited to. 

So congratulations are in order to Mike Vrabel, Eliot Wolf and the Krafts for getting their young quarterback the veteran X-receiver he needs. Which frees them up to address other needs in the draft. Now let's get these two newest, bestest social media friends together as soon as possible so they can get down to the business of letting Diggs do to opposing corners what he did to Christian Gonzalez:

Cue the Duckboats.