Last week wasn’t the first time Stefon Diggs made the trip to New England in his NFL career.
It arguably was his most consequential visit, though.
Less than a week after meeting with head coach Mike Vrabel and New England’s brass in Foxboro, Diggs agreed to a three-year, $63.5 million contract to become a member of the Patriots.
It’s hard to say if the visit was the tipping point for Diggs, who entered free agency after tearing his ACL this past season, to sign with the Patriots. It’s tough to exactly know what goes on during those free-agent trips.
But Diggs gave an inside look at his two-day trip with the Patriots, which reportedly included a dinner with some members of the organization to kick things off.
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“You meet everybody. It’s kind of like a little meet-and-greet, get to know you, whether you have a relationship or not. I wouldn’t say it’s an interview, but it’s an interview,” Diggs told reporters at Gillette Stadium on Friday, per team-provided video. “You get to know who’s around and get to know the coaches and spend the time. I think they kind of want to get to know you as a player, as a person, learn about where you’re from, what you like to do, your hobbies, X, Y, Z. Talk a little bit of football, but I think they do enough homework on the football portion.
“It’s kind of casual and then the next day you tour the facility, you meet everybody that you’re going to be around. You see a couple players, you do maybe a little bit of physical stuff. Maybe a lot of it, you never know. But it’s a cool day. I feel like my individual trip was tailored because I was going to rehab and I had an injury. So more so to get to know you process and the things I do on the field, kind of like with some carryover. They knew a little bit about it from the past, so it was a good visit.”
The in-person meeting was important for the Patriots to check in on Diggs’ health. After being overwhelmingly healthy in his career, Diggs suffered a torn ACL just eight games into his first season with the Houston Texans. Diggs said he is ahead of schedule with his recovery.
But a 31-year-old wide receiver coming off a significant injury might have scared a few teams off this offseason despite Diggs posting six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons, a streak which ended last season only due to the injury.
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“I didn’t visit anywhere (else),” Diggs said. “I had a lot of conversations with a lot of teams. This was my only visit, physical. But I was considering a couple of other places, but that’s all in the past now.”