Stefon Diggs’ viral video marks first questionable moment for Mike Vrabel’s Patriots

The honeymoon ended with a boat party.

Answering questions about how Stefon Diggs cuts loose on the high seas is definitely not how Patriots coach Mike Vrabel wanted to start the second OTA (Organized Team Activity) open to the media, but there he was, visibly cross before Wednesday’s practice.

A video made the rounds on social media this week showing the Patriots wide receiver on a boat with several women in bikinis. That’s fine, unless you’re a complete prude. What’s lit the internet ablaze with speculation is an unidentified pink substance Diggs appears to distribute from his hand.

“Obviously, we want to make great decisions on and off the field. We're hoping that with our time here on the field today, that when we don't have a script and we're on the call periods, that we're making great decisions. The message will be the same for all our players, that we're trying to make great decisions,” Vrabel said in response to questions about the video. “Any conversations that I've had with Stefon will remain between him, I and the club.”

Diggs wasn’t at practice. That’s not unusual – he wasn’t present during the first OTA open to media, and receiver Kayshon Boutte confirmed his process rehabilitating his torn ACL from last season has kept him away from the facility during much of the offseason.

“He hasn’t been here much, but we talk to him every time he comes,” Boutte said after Wednesday’s practice.

So, how big of a deal is Diggs’ video? It rises to the level of, “not a good look,” and it’s the first instance that takes the shine off Vrabel’s Patriot Way 2.0.

It’s not as though past Patriots teams haven’t had their own…embarrassing incidents, (see Chandler Jones, 2016 for reference). But up until this point, Vrabel has been praised every step of the offseason, from free agency to his own leaked video of a team meeting in which he lays out the expectations for behavior around Gillette Stadium.

And let’s be clear, Diggs’ signing was a big part of Vrabel’s celebrated free agency moves. Even in his early 30s and coming off an injury, Diggs is the first bona fide weapon New England’s had since Julian Edelman.

Facing the incident, Vrabel carried himself with a demeaner very familiar to reporters in Foxborough. When asked whether he’s talked to Diggs since the video’s release, the coach answered, “I talk to our players every single day, the ones that are here and the ones that aren't.”

So he wants to keep family business in the family. That’s smart. It’s still possible there will be some innocuous explanation for the suspicious-looking scene.

In the meantime, from the outside, it looks like the Patriots’ second-biggest signing of 2025 exercised poor judgement – or at the very least, carelessness, in this situation.

While it’s practically impossible to prove that Diggs had and was giving out an elicit substance, it matters less than in past years from a punitive perspective. Last December, the NFL introduced a new substance abuse policy that lowered fines on banned recreational substances, among other more relaxed changes. It’s unlikely Diggs gets any meaningful punishment from the league, even if the substance was nefarious.

The real fallout from the clip is public perception. It opens the door to questions about Diggs’ perspective at 31 years old, and the sturdiness of the cultural foundation which Vrabel has lain. If all else goes well this year, this whole ordeal will be a punchline by Christmas. But right now, it’s just embarrassing.