00:00All right, Stefan Diggs. A jury found Stefan Diggs yesterday not guilty in Boston, a jury in Boston, of assaulting
00:09his private chef in a pay dispute. He pled not guilty back in February to felony strangulation and a misdemeanor
00:18assault and battery charge stemming from the alleged dispute.
00:21The trial lasted just two days. The acquittal clears a path for Diggs' return to the field, although he could
00:30still face some discipline from the NFL.
00:33Brian McCarthy, the NFL spokesperson, said we've been monitoring all developments in the matter, which remains under review of the
00:42personal conduct policy.
00:44So we shall see. The case centered, by the way, on a December 2nd encounter in Diggs' home in Massachusetts.
00:53Remember, he played with the Patriots this year, where Jamila Adams, a former live-in personal chef known as Mila,
01:01testified that he slapped and choked her during an argument.
01:04Diggs' attorney said the alleged assault never happened and questioned Adams' credibility and whether the dispute was about money, relationship
01:12tensions, including a disagreement over a planned trip to Miami, or an actual alleged assault.
01:18Clearly, the jury did not think it was an alleged assault.
01:22I did see plenty of videos from her testimony on Monday, and she was a disastrous witness.
01:32It seemed almost, you know, like a foregone conclusion on Monday that Diggs was going to be found not guilty.
01:40So we're not getting into the case. We're not even getting into Diggs' personal issues over the course of his
01:49career.
01:49We're getting into the fact now that he is an available football player.
01:53By the way, you could have signed him before this if you thought that it was going to go this
01:57way.
01:57He's an available football player, Stefan Diggs is.
02:01And Stefan Diggs had a pretty good year last year, you know, as a player who's now 33 years old,
02:0932 years old.
02:11Last year in New England, his one season in New England, 85 receptions, 1,013 yards, four touchdowns, and an
02:20offense that was, you know, had rebounded from the year before.
02:24Drake May really came on, had a superb year.
02:28Now, that defense got better and better and ended up leading them for sure in the postseason where the offense
02:34sort of fell apart.
02:35Stefan Diggs played all 17 games after being injured seriously for the first time in his career in Houston the
02:43year before.
02:44Um, I am a Stefan Diggs fan from this standpoint.
02:49I think he's as good a competitor as the game has.
02:54He is there on game day and yes, he is probably a short dose guy.
03:00A pain in the backside for coaches, for teammates, but short dose, one season, a big season where there's a
03:10team with a need for a number two receiver, for a guy that loves to win, helps you win on
03:18Sundays.
03:18You're not making a commitment to beyond 2026.
03:23Call me interested in Stefan Diggs.
03:26On the other hand is Brandon Iyuk.
03:29We've gone through the Iyuk situation ad nauseum, literally to the point where several of you have said, stop talking
03:36about Brandon Iyuk.
03:37It's starting to feel like the Terry McLaurin conversation from last summer.
03:42But Brandon Iyuk is a different conversation than Terry McLaurin was last year because Brandon Iyuk's not on the team.
03:47Uh, Terry McLaurin was on the team and was always going to be on the team because he was under
03:52contract and he was going to play.
03:53Even though it got framed during the summer, you know, this like choice between pay him so he plays or
04:00don't pay him and he won't play.
04:02No, he was always going to play.
04:03He was under contract.
04:05The issue was whether or not he was going to play with a contract extension or whether he was going
04:10to play on the final year of his contract.
04:13Brandon Iyuk is younger.
04:15Brandon Iyuk, the last time we saw him play a full season was a top 10 receiver easily in the
04:21NFL.
04:22Uh, but we now know the last year and a half and it's not pretty.
04:26It's really the last two years starting with the contract negotiation, uh, in the lead up to the 2024 season.
04:35Uh, he did not handle it maturely.
04:37There were a lot of, you know, clear unprofessional moments.
04:40He's had several of those since then he gets injured early in 2024.
04:44A really difficult knee injury takes a lot of rehab and part of the rehab because he went and had
04:52the surgery done outside the organization and had the rehab done outside the organization met per his contract.
04:58That all he had to do was report periodically one to two times a month is what's been reported to
05:05let San Francisco's team doctors examine the process, the rehab and how it was going.
05:11But he went AWOL, he stopped showing up to the facility, uh, and they voided, uh, between 30 and $40
05:19million of guaranteed money on his contract.
05:22Uh, probably one of the craziest things we've seen in the league because as many people have said, it's really
05:31not something we've seen before.
05:32Because typically when teams try to avoid guaranteed dollars from contracts, they usually get stopped.
05:41They get stopped by attorneys.
05:43They get stopped by the NFL players association and no one has fought back for the money that got voided.
05:52No one has.
05:53He hasn't.
05:54His agent hasn't attorneys representing him.
05:56Haven't.
05:57And the NFL players association hasn't either.
06:00That is very telling.
06:02It may change.
06:03Maybe they're just waiting to see when he comes back, they're going to go back after that money.
06:08Maybe he thinks they're going back after that money, but to leave 30 to $40 million, basically, um, back with
06:16the team and out of your bank account, because you won't show up to their facility one to two times
06:21a month is poor judgment at best.
06:25And really mental instability at worst.
06:30So here are the two choices.
06:34You've got to pick one, right?
06:37This is one in which the answer can't be neither.
06:40I'll take the group that I have.
06:43And let me just mention, I've said this a few times.
06:46If they enter this upcoming season with the current group of receivers that they have, I'll be disappointed because I
06:53would have preferred another playmaker, specifically another wide receiver to complimentary, to give them a true number two.
07:01Is it possible a true number two exists on the roster right now in the form of, you know, Traylon
07:10Burks, probably not Luke McCaffrey, probably not Antonio Williams.
07:15As a true number two, as a rookie, I'm going to say probably not, but maybe, maybe they got something
07:22that they believe is going to work.
07:24Maybe Deami, maybe Burks.
07:27If they went into the season with the group that they have, it's not like they aren't going to be
07:33capable offensively.
07:35The most critical player to their offense and to their team is Jaden Daniels.
07:39And we saw what happened in 2024 with essentially a similar group, you know, in terms of the available playmakers.
07:48It was not, you know, a dynamic playmaking unit.
07:51In fact, you could argue that in the backfield alone, they don't have the home run threat or they didn't
07:57in 2024 that maybe Krosky Merit is.
08:01I mean, Eckler was really good in 2024 when he was on the field, and I thought they were a
08:07much better team offensively when he was on the field versus when he wasn't.
08:12But if they went into 2025, 2026 with this group, it would be capable of playing well and at a
08:20high level.
08:20Would it be the top three, top four, top five offense that it was in 2024?
08:25I don't know, but it'd be a top 10 offense if the quarterback plays all 17.
08:30I believe that.
08:31And then it just comes down to team success relying on the defense to be much improved.
08:36But I would love another bona fide playmaker.
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