Maryland Alum Stefon Diggs Dominates Jets as Patriots Make Final Push for Top Seed in AFC
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Stefon Diggs having a monster performance might feel like Deja Vu, and with good reason. One week after torching the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football, the veteran wide receiver was at it again, this time in East Rutherford.
Diggs treated the hapless New York Jets as such, racking up six first-half catches for 101 yards and a touchdown in New England's 42-10 victory. The performance was his second straight of over 100 receiving yards and moves him in striking distance for a seventh-career 1,000-yard season.
The fireworks started early for Diggs, who - with the Pats already up 14-0 - leapt over Jets' corner Quan'Tez Stiggers to haul in a 31-yard pass from Drake Maye.
STEFON. DIGGS. MOSSED.
— x - New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 28, 2025
📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/oTFYIoKSg3
Then with 3:01 left in the second quarter, Diggs put the dagger through New York on a three-yard slant from Maye, extending New England's lead to 28-3. The catch was Stefon's fourth TD catch of the season and snapped a five-week dry spell in that regard.
The big day also paid off for Diggs in a more literal sense: he earned a cool half-a-million-dollar bonus for reaching 80 receptions on the season.
With one game left in the regular season, Diggs needs only 30 more yards to reach 1,000 for the seventh time in eight years. Before an injury-shortened stint with the Texans last year, Diggs had four straight thousand-yard campaigns with the Bills and two prior to that with the Vikings.
Diggs should get that chance next Sunday afternoon when the 13-3 Patriots host the 7-9 Miami Dolphins. Mike Vrabel's squad has their postseason ticket well locked up, but there's a much more impressive bounty still in reach: the number one seed in the AFC.
The Denver Broncos currently hold the tiebreaker over New England for the coveted first round bye, but the race isn't over yet. While Diggs and the Pats get a team whose season is effectively over to close things out, Denver has to play the wild card bound Los Angeles Chargers.
While the Bolts will be playing a road playoff game no matter what, their seeding is also at large. A win over the Broncos, coupled with losses from the Texans and Bills, would propel them back into the five seed, sending them to the winner of Pittsburgh and Baltimore's Week 18 showdown.
With those teams playing the eliminated Colts and Jets, however, it's more likely the Chargers lose a hard fought game in Denver and drop down to the seventh spot - possibly setting up a trip to New England.
Regardless, Diggs will be on the home sideline for his first playoff game since the 2023 Divisional Round.
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Mike joined Sports Illustrated with over four years of sportswriting experience. He started off his career in Syracuse on the Orange football beat, where he was featured on CBS Sports' Cover 3 Podcast and local ESPN sports talk radio. After a brief stint reporting on Major League Baseball, he returned to the college landscape with Maryland On SI.