The Stefon Diggs era in Foxboro will be a one-and-done, and fans of the New England Patriots probably saw it coming.
But the team’s initial messaging through ESPN and the national media — that Diggs was essentially a salary cap casualty — comes off disingenuous at best, and Patriots fans shouldn't be taking it at face value.
While Diggs brought the kind of vocal leadership and veteran savvy that Mike Vrabel needed for his offense in Year 1, he was never a lock to play out the balance of the three-year, $63.5 million contract he signed in 2025. The Patriots front-loaded his deal to the point where only $6 million of his 2026 salary would've become guaranteed had he remained on the roster past March 13.
Diggs was a fit for Josh McDaniels’ offense as the main slot receiver and security blanket for quarterback Drake Maye. But now entering his age-33 season, he’s far from the game-changer the team’s been coveting at the wide receiver position for years.
He was erased far too easily at times during the Patriots’ playoff run, and his off-the-field issues, including a serious allegation involving felony strangulation against a female personal chef, make this move easy to understand from the outside looking in.
Unfortunately for the Patriots’ PR machine, Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal may have outed the real motivation behind the Diggs decision. It all boils down to the real money, as in, the franchise’s overall cash flow under the direction of Robert and Jonathan Kraft.
“The biggest benefit of parting with Diggs now is that the Patriots have now freed up another $21.7 million in cash to spend this offseason,” Bedard wrote. “Depending on where the Krafts draw the line on the cash budget, New England could now have more than $60 million more in cash to spend to help the team. It's $60 million if the Krafts allow Mike Vrabel to be over the three-year cash budget by $11 million. If the Krafts approve more, the Patriots would be able to go even further.”
The Patriots’ decision to cut ties with Stefon Diggs came down to cash (not cap)
Diggs’ Patriots contract was always structured as a de facto one-year deal. Only $22.6 million of the contract was guaranteed, and he got almost 75 percent of those guaranteed dollars up front.
His matching $26.5 million cap hits for 2026 and 2027 were nothing more than placeholders. If the Patriots wanted to continue to Year 2 of the deal, a simple restructure to guarantee more of his 2026 base salary would’ve allowed the team to lower the cap hit and keep him in the mix. Otherwise, the Patriots could choose to exit the contract for just an $11.4 million dead-cap charge, per Spotrac.
The Patriots obviously chose the latter option, and they had plenty of on- and off-field reasons to do so. The reality here is that the Krafts have a fixed budget for this part of their business that's broken down into three-year increments, per Bedard, and after committing a whopping $364.3 million in potential max value to player contracts last offseason, 2026 was always going to be a financial reset of sorts.
That kind of messaging? It doesn’t play well for the team through the national media, especially coming off a trip to the Super Bowl. Diggs was far from the perfect player or person, but he fit the offense, went over 1,000 yards receiving, and would've been worth a $20 million base salary had the team opted to pay him.
There’s too much awareness and information out there around the NFL’s salary cap nowadays for fans to fall for the “cap casualty” narrative. That carries about as much weight as pixie dust.
Stefon Diggs thanks the Patriots. A source says the Patriots have informed him he will be released at the start of the league year. Ties to finances, as cap charge was spiking from $10.5m to $26.5m. pic.twitter.com/bh1OlZbTrU
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) March 4, 2026
The NFL just set its 2026 salary cap number at $301.5 million, clearing $300 million for the first time in league history. Yet, 21 of the league's 32 teams spent over $300 million in real cash on player salaries during the 2025 league year (including the Patriots), according to Spotrac.
The salary cap rarely deters an NFL team from making a move, especially a Patriots team that already has over $35 million in space for 2026. They could've easily lowered Diggs' cap number and paired him with an external addition like Alec Pierce or A.J. Brown this offseason. It's also totally understandable that they chose not to.
It would be nice, though, if we could retire the old PR spin from the early 2000s and just tell it like it is.