00:00What she said at the end there is kind of appropriate, Murray.
00:02It's like, you're trying to say something, or there's something here.
00:05I don't know what it is, but it's like, isn't that the Steph Diggs experience?
00:09Yes, the mercurial Steph Diggs.
00:11Like, you don't know really what the, he's changing his mind on the fly here,
00:14because it, what are you, it's exactly that.
00:15What are you trying to tell us here?
00:17Because it does feel like there is something there.
00:18The coaches aren't too excited.
00:20I'm not too excited.
00:21I've heard you try to push it too hard.
00:23I've heard that too, like.
00:25So, this I get from, this is not the official email of the day.
00:28It'll be an early precursor, but it's from an emailer named Kevin,
00:33who's maybe he's a Vikings fan or has followed Diggs his whole career.
00:36He says, he said, I've been listening to the job, I've been listening on the job,
00:41I guess, today, and everyone trying to interpret the latest Diggs comments
00:43and reports, and it's deja vu.
00:46The diva, the bad guy, et cetera label on Diggs is not one that comes
00:50from singular, straightforward blowouts.
00:54Three teams have moved on from Diggs, and none of them were the result
00:57of some single polarizing lash-out event that is usually the case
01:01with these diva receivers.
01:03What we are seeing today, a media story fueled by the back-and-forth speculation
01:08on a Steph Diggs vague comment, is the historic core of the Steph Diggs diva label
01:15that has gotten him moved from three teams.
01:18There will be no singular crash-out.
01:20It's already started, and you will see there will be a new, quote-unquote,
01:25controversial controversy every few weeks that will come from a vague Diggs comment
01:29or tweet.
01:30It's never direct.
01:31He's a master of and addicted to creating a media frenzy by being vague through comments.
01:39He'll tweet or say some cryptic thing with zero context for the sole purpose
01:43of creating a story from the media and fans trying to interpret the meaning,
01:47which usually is interpreted as something negative, that he will then play the victim
01:53and gaslight it as people reading too much into things.
01:57His cryptic tweets caused controversy every year in Buffalo, only for him to publicly say
02:03he loves the Bills and never wants to leave whenever asked to explain.
02:06Maybe this guy's a Bills fan.
02:08It eventually got him shipped out of town.
02:10All you have to do is Google history of Steph Diggs cryptic tweets,
02:13and you'll get 50 articles about them.
02:17So that is kind of true.
02:18You can help me if I'm wrong.
02:20Was there ever a blowout, blowup, singular incident there in Buffalo?
02:24There was one little sideline thing between him and Josh Allen at one point,
02:28but it wasn't like, you know, punches were thrown.
02:30I think they were jarring at each other, as I recall, at one point,
02:33but nothing more than that.
02:35No, it just sounds like he's a giant pain in the ass.
02:37And if you apply this to, like, you know, when you're dating points, you're like,
02:42okay, she's hot, and I'm willing to put up with an X amount of crap.
02:45But then you reach a point where it's like, this ain't worth it.
02:48So if Steph Diggs has lost a step and he's no longer worth it,
02:51then it might not be worth it for the Patriots, and they might move on,
02:54like these other three teams have.
02:55The one that stands out to me the most was this most recent stop in Houston,
02:58where they spent all this money.
03:01The Texans are a team that's on the come, has a, you know, looks like they've hit on the quarterback.
03:07They made him a captain last year, and sure, he got injured,
03:10but they had seemingly zero interest in bringing him back.
03:13So just in that short amount of time, they were like, you're too much of a pain in the ass.
03:16It ain't worth it.
03:17Go be someone else's problem.
03:18And now he's the Patriots issue.
03:21Definitely.
03:21I mean, the guys that move teams like that, I mean, with that talent,
03:25three teams in three years, there's a reason.
03:28So I fully believe.
03:30When you produce, though, and you were Steph Diggs at the height of his, you know,
03:33prowess on the field, like you're more than willing to deal with that kind of pain in the ass behavior.
03:37But now, now teams are right to say, like, enough.
03:40We don't need this.
03:41And that's what, to me, it felt like the Texans did last year.
03:44Sure.
03:44And, you know, Phil's reporting that Diggs does not look like a number one
03:47or not really showing out on the field is scary, you know, I think, in conjunction with that.
03:56But I think the Patriots knew it.
04:00The Patriots knew it, and they signed the player with clenched teeth.
04:03This is nothing that they would do if they were on firmer ground.
04:09But they only have themselves to blame.
04:10They couldn't close the deal on any of those other receivers.
04:13They cannot draft at the position to save their lives.
04:16So they were backed into the corner on doing a guy who was really the last real guy standing
04:21with all those problems.
04:24And something tells me the Patriots are already experiencing some of them, if not a lot of them.
04:29But what are they going to do?
04:30This is where they're at.
04:32And that is, that's a bad story.
04:35After three years of just fumbling around at the position, to be in that spot is, I just think, inexcusable.
04:44And it just speaks, it's to the organization.
04:46I'm yelling at some of the people that came before the current group.
04:50I'm just, at the team.
04:52It's just, that can't keep going on year after year after year.
04:57And I just, it's sort of my lead take today after hearing the reports on the offensive
05:01line and the receiver group.
05:02It's like, they're still stuck.
05:03They're still stuck at those spots.
05:05I don't see much progress there.
05:07Doesn't feel like it anyway.
05:08The, during the spring when Diggs was missing and effing around on the boat and all that,
05:15Rabel was asked directly about Diggs' investment level and effort.
05:21And Mike wouldn't really address it, right?
05:24Don't you remember?
05:24He skirted the question.
05:25He couldn't even bring himself to say he's been working hard.
05:30Here he's saying he cares and he works hard.
05:32So that tells me it's, you know, they're okay-ish.
05:37And maybe it's true that Diggs does care and is working hard.
05:41But Rabel's clearly annoyed by the question and not just Phil.
05:47You know, it's a pretty straightforward thing.
05:49Diggs says in an interview, not sure if I'll be ready.
05:51And then Perry asked Mike Rabel, Diggs said he wasn't sure about his readiness.
06:00Your thoughts?
06:00And he said, do you believe that?
06:02Meaning Rabel thinks that Diggs would just be lying about that?
06:06Or Diggs is just playing coy to play coy and Phil and we're all supposed to figure that out.
06:11Like that's what Rabel's saying there, right?
06:13Yeah.
06:13Feels like that to me.
06:15So that to me, I guess.
06:20But then why is Mike so annoyed by that?
06:24Why is he so agitated?
06:25Probably because he's dealing with something with this particular player that's got him irked.
06:31So, you know, reading...
06:32I mean, why don't they all just play along?
06:33But, you know, like, yeah, Mike did...
06:36Steph Diggs said that he wasn't sure about his readiness for week one.
06:39To which Rabel says, yeah, we're all in the same boat.
06:42I mean, I gotta be ready on...
06:44You know, if he's ready, he'll play.
06:46If he's not, he won't.
06:47And we're all hoping that he'll be ready.
06:48Same with all of our injured players.
06:49Or all of our recovering players.
06:51Like, why don't he just play along?
06:51Why did Rabel feel the need to kind of lash out there?
06:54And the reason I think you're right, Murray, is because he's projecting.
06:57He's got something going on with the guy.
06:59And he's just bugged by the whole situation.
07:01Yeah, and I think there's a tell from...
07:02I don't know if you read Karen Grisian Mass Live today about this very thing.
07:08How Steph Diggs has gone from being Patriots' best receiver to an afterthought?
07:13She writes, there's little dispute in the fact the star receiver,
07:15who's the team's best wide out early in camp.
07:18Last week, Diggs mysteriously showed up late to the joint practices against Washington,
07:22was held out of the game against the Commanders.
07:23Rabel called it a coach's decision.
07:25What does that mean?
07:26Is the knee acting up?
07:26Because the four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver pushed too hard to come back.
07:29Rabel wants everyone to believe there's nothing to see here,
07:32but he added fuel to the fire with his coach's decision remark.
07:36And he's disappeared from the offense in recent days.
07:38And she's right to point that out.
07:39The coach's decision remark means that Rabel is pissed about something that he did,
07:43and he held him out of that last week.
07:45And now there's this thing going on maybe between these two parties,
07:49and the head coach and the wide receiver.
07:50Is Diggs taking his foot off the gas?
07:53In terms of how he's practicing?
07:55Yeah, Matt, it feels that way.
07:57It feels that way.
07:58Yes, exactly.
07:58And this is the Steph Diggs experience.
08:00That's my sense with it.
08:02That being said, he's still the best receiver they've had here in five, six years.
08:08I mean, to your point, Mike, that's the issue.
08:10I mean, you have to rely on somebody like this.
08:13It's not somebody you want to rely on,
08:14but he's still better than anything else they have,
08:17which is not a good thing.
08:18I mean, you have to rely on somebody like this.
