Stefon Diggs is still a free agent with approximately two weeks before NFL training camps open, and the veteran wide receiver is making his pitch directly and publicly, arguing in a video posted to his YouTube channel that no team in the league has a number two receiver better than what he can offer.
Diggs, 32, acknowledged in the video that he may no longer occupy the tier of elite number one receivers in the NFL, a concession about age and competitive positioning that showed self-awareness. But he followed that acknowledgment immediately with a challenge: he believes every team can be presumed to have a number one, and when teams identify their actual number two, none of them is better than what he brings.
His argument and why it is not easily dismissed
The logic Diggs presented was straightforward. There are, in his estimation, only a handful of legitimate elite number one wide receivers in the league at any given time. When those are set aside and teams look at the next level of receiver on their rosters, he argued that none of them matches his combination of production, experience, and reliability. He invited any team to name their current number two, state his salary, and then honestly answer whether that player is better than Diggs.
The statistical foundation for that argument is real. Diggs had a productive 2025 season with the New England Patriots, leading the team with 85 receptions for over 1,000 yards and four touchdowns in the regular season. He added 14 receptions and a touchdown across four postseason games during New England’s Super Bowl run. It was the seventh 1,000-yard season of his career, accomplished at 31 after coming back from a season-ending knee injury the previous year with the Houston Texans.
The path that led here
Diggs became a free agent in March when the Patriots released him in a financially motivated move, his $26.5 million cap charge for the coming season making him difficult to retain as the team rebuilt its receiving corps by trading for another receiver and signing a replacement. The release ended a one-year stint in New England that had, by any production measure, gone well for both parties.
Before the market could fully develop, Diggs faced significant legal and professional uncertainty. He was charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault in connection with an alleged dispute with his private chef, charges that led to a two-day trial in May. He was found not guilty on all counts. The NFL subsequently closed its review of his conduct, determining there was insufficient evidence of a personal conduct policy violation. With those clouds cleared, he is now available to any team without additional complications.
What teams are weighing
The case against signing Diggs at this stage of the offseason involves the usual considerations around age and whether his production in his early 30s will hold. A receiver who had a 1,000-yard season at 31 is not automatically in decline, but teams considering a multiyear commitment naturally weigh how many productive seasons remain.
The case for signing him is equally clear. He is a proven route runner with professional experience at the highest level of competition, he had a productive season recently on a team that went to the Super Bowl, and the legal issues that may have given some organizations pause have been resolved through the legal process and the league’s own review.
Diggs, for his part, expressed confidence that things would work out as they should. He said in the video that he understood the journey that had brought him to this moment, accepted the unconventional nature of it, and believed he would end up where he was supposed to be.
