Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Stefon Diggs shares surprising detail about what he's doing to hit the ground running and help the Patriots offense

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Wendell Ferreira | Last updated Jul 15, 2025 10:47 AM ET

Stefon Diggs has been in the NFL since 2015, so he has seen multiple offensive schemes for the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, and Houston Texans. Even though he played under Brian Daboll, who was influenced in part by the Erhardt-Perkins offensive system, Diggs is learning the intricacies of what the scheme looks like under Josh McDaniels.

At 31, Diggs wants to master the offense as soon as possible to be a quick difference-maker for the New England Patriots. In his YouTube channel, the veteran receiver shared the process of learning the offense with an interesting level of details about the general logic.

"I'm studying, but it's really the route concepts," Diggs explained. "Like, basically, if you hear a word, you need to be able to know the word immediately, know the concept. I don't need to know exactly just what I got, I need to know what somebody to the right or to the left of me got. So what everybody got around me, how I'm going to get open, or how I'm going to get somebody else open."

The entire Patriots' offensive unit is learning the system once again. Since Josh McDaniels left the team, the offense had Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in 2022, then Bill O'Brien in 2023 running similar versions of the scheme. Last year, though, Alex Van Pelt ran a system with elements of the West Coast Offense learned behind Mike McCarthy and then Kevin Stefanski.

Now, McDaniels is back, and so is the Erhardt-Perkins system—a modernized version of the original system installed on the Patriots by Charlie Weis, who was the offensive coordinator from 2000 through 2004.

This is the third time Josh McDaniels will be the Patriots offensive coordinator, the first without Bill Belichick as the head coach.

Meanwhile, Stefon Diggs signed to give the Patriots a veteran presence with a track record of high-level production—albeit he's coming back from a serious knee injury. His best days came exactly playing under Brian Daboll on the Bills. In 2020, for example, the receiver had 127 catches for 1,535 yards, and eight touchdowns. He had four seasons in Buffalo, all of them with at least 1,100 yards.

Diggs got a three-year, $63.5 million contract, but only the first season is actually guaranteed.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: