A five star recruit out of high school, Stefon Diggs was not rated as highly by the NFL and was drafted in the 5th round. Diggs made headlines in training camp for his exceptional play, but he was inactive for the first three games of the season. Due to an injury to Charles Johnson, Diggs got his chance in week 4 and impressed against the Broncos. With Johnson still not fully healthy after a bye, Diggs was named a starter for the Vikings’ week 6 game against the Chiefs, leading the team in catches and receiving yards. In fact, although he’s only played in two of the Vikings’ five games, he’s second on the team in receiving yards and third in receptions.
Clearly, Diggs has been turning heads in his first two NFL games. How exactly has he been doing this? Diggs has done an excellent job of applying his supreme athleticism to route running, which has led to him being open on a number of plays. The tape below shows exactly how Diggs was able to be successful against the Chiefs:
3-4-MIN 20 (Q1, 13:44) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass deep right to S.Diggs ran ob at MIN 36 for 16 yards.
This is the Vikings’ first play from scrimmage, and it says a lot about Teddy Bridgewater’s trust in Diggs that he’s willing to go to him to convert a third down on his first pass of the game. On this play, Diggs runs himself wide open, and it’s clear that he is the correct choice for Teddy to throw to. Here, he is lined up as the receiver closest to the boundary at the bottom of the screen. On the play, he is running a 16 yard out route. The most vital component of this route is selling the vertical portion, which means you want to get the CB (in this case it’s fellow rookie Marcus Peters, who is playing far off coverage at the snap) to turn and start retreating upfield to cover the threat of a vertical route. On this play, you see Diggs do his job selling the vertical route, as when Diggs is about at the 26 Peters turns and starts moving up the field. Something that’s also important is that on his release, Diggs slants his route ever so slightly to the inside. This gets Peters moving inside (which makes it harder to recover when Diggs makes his move outside) and it also gives Diggs more space to work with once he does break his route. The next thing to take a look at is Diggs’ break, which he executes very well. It begins at about the 32 and he flattens it out at the 36. You want to flatten your route as quickly as possible, so as to keep the DB as far away from you as possible, and that’s not particularly easy to do when you’re running at full speed. Diggs does it in about three steps, and four yards from the beginning to the end of the break is about as good as you’re going to get. Something else that’s nice is he doesn’t chop his feet while making his break. He’s able to still take long strides while gearing down and cutting, which not everyone can do even on the NFL level. The culmination of everything above leads to Diggs being wide open, and he presents and easy target for Teddy to convert the first down. Teddy’s throw is a bit high, and Diggs has to reach up over his head to grab it, but this was a relatively easy catch and a very nice play for a first down.
2-10-MIN 46 (Q1, 9:04) T.Bridgewater pass short left to S.Diggs ran ob at KC 23 for 31 yards.
On this play, Diggs is at the top of your screen, and he’s facing off against Sean Smith, who is usually an excellent corner. Once again, Diggs is assigned to run an out route, but the circumstances are a bit different here, because Smith is in press technique. On the last play, Peters was off, so Diggs could have released more or less in a straight line if he had wanted to. This time, Diggs need to either release to the inside or the outside, as he has a smaller frame for WRs, so he’s not like Calvin or Julio where he can just run through DBs. The obvious choice for an out route to release inside, as it gets the CBs hips turned in the wrong direction to cover your break. That’s exactly what Diggs does here. When Diggs starts his break (at the KC 46), Smith is just a yard behind him. This is important to note, because if Diggs rounds his route off too far he will end up trying to run through Smith instead of crossing in front of him. Thus, he needs to be sudden and sharp with his cut. Diggs has great skill as a punt returner, and he’s able to translate that quickness into his route running. That’s notable, because it’s not something every player can do (the Vikings’ have a great example of the inability to do so on their roster in Cordarrelle Patterson). Diggs crosses in front of Smith so violently that Smith trips over himself and falls down. Diggs, once again wide open, is able to make an easy catch and take the ball down the sideline to pick up a large chunk of yardage.
3-11-KC 24 (Q1, 7:47) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass short right to S.Diggs pushed ob at KC 10 for 14 yards (M.Peters).
For Diggs, this play looks eerily similar to the last one, except this time Diggs is at the bottom of the screen and it’s Peters in coverage again instead of Smith. At this point, Diggs’ success at running out routes has been discussed ad nauseum, so not much more needs to be said here. It is, however, important to note that Diggs’ first three catches came on out routes, because that will set up another route later in the game.
2-7-MIN 22 (Q1, :38) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass deep left to S.Diggs pushed ob at MIN 42 for 20 yards (S.Smith).
This play has Diggs facing off against Smith at the top of the screen. Smith is in press technique, and this time he actually tries to jam Diggs. To an extent, Smith does a good job. You can see the flurry of hands, and Diggs does disengage, but Smith’s jam was able to slow Diggs down and Smith stayed stride for stride with him down the field. That’s important, because it means that Smith is in position to stop and vertical routes. Unfortunately for Smith, Diggs’ job on this play isn’t to chase after a deep pass. Instead (probably based on the fact that Smith had good coverage over the top), Teddy threw the pass to Diggs’ back shoulder. This kind of throw is a risky one to make to inexperienced players, because Smith, who is in man coverage, is watching Diggs’ body language. If Diggs reacts to the throw too early, Smith will be able to adjust and knock the ball away, so keeping a strong poker face is key. Diggs does a great job of continuing to go vertical and fooling Smith until he suddenly stops and jumps to adjust to the ball. This play shows great chemistry between Bridgewater and Diggs, which is very promising seeing as this is only their second live game together.
1-10-KC 39 (Q2, 8:30) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short left to S.Diggs.
Here Diggs runs another out route, but it’s from a different alignment from his previous ones, which leads to different coverage by the Chiefs. On this play, he’s slotted inside Mike Wallace at the bottom of the screen. Smith takes Wallace in man coverage, which means that safety Eric Berry has coverage on Diggs. Like Peters in the first play, Berry is playing off, but he remains more disciplined on this play than Peters did earlier. He does not bite on Diggs’ vertical sell, and ends up in much better position to cover the out route. However, Diggs still works his way open on the play. This is once again because of how sharp and quick his break was. Once again, he gains about four yards from the start of his break to when it flattens out. Four yards may seem like a lot, but it’s actually a really tight turning radius considering how fast Diggs was going. This leaves enough cushion between Diggs and Berry that Berry was not able to drive on the route and catch up with Diggs as the ball got there. However, Berry gets bailed out because the throw is poor. It’s well over Diggs’ head, and although he gets an outstretched arm on the pass he cannot be expected to catch it. The problem for Bridgewater was that his throw was hurried by Tamba Hali, who beat LT Matt Kalil soundly on this play. The rushed throw caused the ball to sail, which caused the incompletion.
2-8-MIN 18 (Shotgun) (Q2, 2:31) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short right to M.Wallace (M.Peters).
This play is an example where Diggs isn’t actually targeted, but clearly wins his route. Sometimes as a receiver, the QB’s read simply isn’t your side of the play, and that’s what happens here. However, this play provides a good standard of comparison between Diggs (the bottommost receiver) and Wallace (the intended target on the play) because they are both running 14 to 16 yard curl routes. Now, it’s not exactly a fair comparison, because their releases are inherently different, as Peters is playing off coverage on Wallace while Smith is in press technique against Diggs. Diggs has to deal with Smith in his way, so his acceleration is naturally slower. However, look at their breaks. Watching closely, Wallace takes a big stride at the 29 yard line that indicates he is gearing down to run the curl. He isn’t able to actually dip his hips and get himself fully turned around until the 33. Diggs, on the other hand, doesn’t give an indication of gearing down until his step on the 30. From there, he’s able to stop on a dime and get fully turned around by the 32. That’s a lot more sudden of a break, which gives Diggs a better chance of being open. Smith also helps illustrate just how impressive Diggs’ break is, as he ends up stumbling around. This doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but it does show up on film to give the Vikings opportunities to exploit Diggs’ suddenness in the future.
1-10-50 (Q3, 10:52) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass short left to S.Diggs to KC 35 for 15 yards (T.Hali).
This is a pretty simple tunnel screen; the concept is to have the receivers block a lane up the middle for Diggs to run through. It works very well, as Diggs is able to pick up 15 yards. Tamba Hali does a great job recognizing the play, and actually might be the sole reason this play didn’t go for a TD, making the tackle. Outside of Hali, Berry was the only defender that had a chance to stop Diggs, and Diggs put a wicked cut on him, setting him up outside and then going across his face. Since Hali made the play, the result of that potential interaction is unclear, but it appears that Berry would have been well out of position to make the tackle.
2-7-KC 32 (Q3, 9:35) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short right to M.Wallace.
Once again we see an example of Diggs’ suddenness, as he starts out on the bottom of the screen on this play. It’s essentially what happened two plays ago, except on a shorter route. The pass goes to Wallace once again here, but this time Wallace has a chance for a clean catch and just drops it.
2-10-MIN 8 (Q3, 3:54) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short left to J.Wright.
Remember all of those out routes Diggs ran earlier? They set up this play, which is my personal favorite route by Diggs on the day. Here, Stefon is the WR closest to the bottom of the screen at the snap. As you can see, he’s facing off against Sean Smith and if Bridgewater had gotten him the ball, this play would have been a TD. Now, that’s not to say that Bridgewater made a poor decision, because for whatever reason Bridgewater’s presnap read told him to look to his right. By the time he got a chance to go back to the left, he was under pressure and had to throw the ball away. So, how did the out routes Diggs ran earlier set up this play? It’s subtle, but very clear. With Smith in off coverage, Diggs fires off the line, but starting at the 10 yard line, he starts to slightly bend his route inward. This gets Smith thinking out route, and he starts to cheat up and to the outside. At the 14, Diggs head fakes to the outside, and Smith fully bites. Then, Diggs turns his route back upfield and ends up with about four full yards of separation before Smith can recover. That move to the outside and then cutting back in is a very subtle thing that even some experienced NFL players don’t do well, so it’s nice to see Diggs doing that in his second game and it’s also nice to see that he (or Norv Turner) understands how to take advantange of DBs cheating to the offense’s tendencies.
3-10-MIN 8 (Q3, 3:48) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short left to S.Diggs (J.Howard). - No Play PENALTY on KC-J.Howard, Roughing the Passer, 15 yards, enforced at MIN 8.
This is another out route, although it’s more of a snag (which means the WR breaks inside before turning around and breaking outside) than the previous routes were. Once again, I think Diggs does a good job of being sudden with his break to create separation. Like before, Teddy’s throw was high and Diggs could not reel it in. Really, the failure on this play is on the QB, although Bridgewater did get bailed out by Howard getting a boneheaded Roughing the Passer call.
3-15-MIN 15 (Q4, 7:31) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass deep middle to S.Diggs to MIN 45 for 30 yards (E.Berry).
This play shows strong chemistry between Bridgewater and Diggs and solid improvisation skills from Diggs. This is a pretty big scenario in the game, as the Vikings are up 13-10 at this point and have really been struggling on offense the entire second half. It’s third down and long, and things are looking pretty bleak. Initially at the top of the screen, Diggs gets jammed by Smith and doesn’t come open on his initial route. However, Teddy is able to extend the play in the pocket. When a QB extends the play, the WRs are obviously supposed to move to open spots. Diggs was able to position himself right in the middle of four defenders, virtually equidistant from each one. This is great position on this type of play. Diggs put his hand up to declare that he was open, Bridgewater noticed him and fired the ball in, and Diggs made the catch to convert a huge third down that was crucial to the Vikings maintaining the lead in the game.
1-10-MIN 45 (Q4, 6:45) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass short right to S.Diggs to MIN 48 for 3 yards (M.Peters).
This is a bubble screen designed for Diggs. As a terminology note, while they’re both WR screens, earlier the play the Vikings ran is called a tunnel screen because Diggs was the outermost receiver working in, and here it’s a bubble screen because he’s the inner most receiver working out. This play fails, but it’s not really Diggs’ fault, as Mike Wallace put forth some truly atrocious effort here. He looked totally lackluster when trying to make one of the most important blocks on this particular play, and allowed Peters to shed him easily.
In just his second NFL game, Diggs showed a number of great qualities that WRs need to succeed in the NFL. His most impressive quality by far was his route running. Specifically, he is incredibly sudden when breaking routes, which has led to him breaking the ankles of DBs and positioning himself to be wide open. Additionally, he seems to understand route leverages and how to get himself in position to succeed on his break. Next, he showed great chemistry with QB Teddy Bridgewater, which is a very nice thing to see given the short period of time the two have played together. Diggs also appears to have the beginnings of very nice after the catch ability, although he didn’t show it much in this game.
There are, however, some things Diggs either did not do well or did not show in this game. The first, and biggest, issue is his release against press coverage. When DBs pressed him and he was running a vertical route, he failed to get good separation to set himself up to catch a deep pass. He is not a very large or physical receiver, so being able to beat press coverage is a big key for him because his lack of ideal size makes it much more difficult. Then, while he showed off a decent catch radius, he by no means showed off a spectacular one. There were a couple of balls delivered over his head that I wouldn’t expect him to catch, but there are an elite few who can make those types of plays. Diggs should not be counted among them. Finally, Diggs didn’t show ability to make contested catches. This was not something he was asked to do in this game, and it’s not something that can be counted against him from this tape, but it is important and requires further investigation to see whether or not he can be successful in that area.
