The other advantage of playing Diggs out of the slot is that he could get favorable matchups away from top corners. For instance, Diggs lines up in the slot vs. his former team above. Buffalo ends up adding a rusher on a blitz while playing a single-high man coverage scheme in the backend. That gets Diggs one-on-one vs. Bills CB Ja’Marcus Ingram, and Diggs makes a great sliding catch for another third-down conversion.
Since taking over as the Patriots top personnel executive, Wolf has pursued several big-name receivers on the veteran market.
Diggs ends a two-year pursuit of a big-name star receiver for New England. Although the 31-year-old is coming off a significant knee injury, the updates on Diggs’s rehab are positive. When healthy, Diggs is a prolific receiver as a route-running savant who can be a quarterback’s best friend on short and intermediate routes. Just ask Josh Allen, who went from a promising youngster to a perennial All-Pro when Diggs arrived in 2020.
Along with making life easier on Maye, Diggs, a versatile technician who can win on routes from anywhere, is an intriguing fit with McDaniels. McDaniels is known for formationing defenses to death by getting his best skill players into favorable matchups and creating easy wins for receivers. The Pats OC now has a chess piece that he can move around the board to let Diggs thrive, while Diggs, at the peak of his powers, fits the “Tuesday player” description we’ve discussed.
A Tuesday player means defenses must strategize to take Diggs out of the game in their game-planning meetings during the week. Diggs has the talent to break through that coverage plan, while it also has a trickle-down effect by making it easier for the Pats other pass-catchers to succeed. For example, suppose Diggs is drawing the opponent’s No. 1 corner. In that case, his teammates will face corners further down the depth chart. It can also benefit those around Diggs if he starts drawing extra…
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