Will Stefon Diggs Play in Week 1? Fantasy Football Injury Update

Will Stefon Diggs play for the New England Patriots in 2025? Will Stefon Diggs be healthy enough to play in Week 1? John breaks down the latest Stefon Diggs injury news for fantasy football.

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs (knee) signed a three-year, $63.5 million contract with his new team after the 2024 season. That might seem like an overpay, but wide receiver salaries have exploded in recent years because the position is so valuable.

With the passing game being the most important component to consistently winning contests in the NFL, and great wide receivers' impacts on offenses being more understood, sometimes you have to break the bank to sign talent that you think can help your quarterback take his game to the next level.

Things aren't so simple with Diggs, though. He's 31 years old and will turn 32 during the 2025 season. To make matters worse, he tore his ACL in Week 8 of the 2024 season. So, there are doubts about his status this year, and let's break those down, as well as his fantasy football outlook!

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Will Stefon Diggs Play This Season?

Yes. It's not like he tore his ACL in offseason training camp. ACL tears generally take at least 10 months for players to recover from before they return to play, with some players needing more time. Unfortunately, it's hard to say exactly when Diggs will return.

News out of the Patriots organization has been mostly positive, though. He's been practicing with the team, running standard wide receiver routes, and even making good plays when the ball's been thrown his way. He's reportedly "ahead of schedule" in his recovery.

Stefon Diggs out there playing DBs like a fiddle 🎻

Continues to be one of the few injury comeback cases in high on this season 📈#NEPats pic.twitter.com/aDq0skP5XW

— Sebastian Fearon DPT, CSCS, OCS (@TheDegenDoc) August 13, 2025

Of course, it's important to take those reports with a grain of salt. Plenty of players who were "ahead of schedule" recovering from their injuries have ended up returning within the expected timetable, and not looking too great when they got back on the field, anyway.

Diggs is a little bit under 10 months removed from his injury now. Safe to say the team wouldn't have signed him to such a big contract if there were a major setback or if his knee simply didn't recover as expected. Draft Diggs with confidence that he won't be out all season.

Will Stefon Diggs Play In Week 1?

This is a bit murkier. By the time the season starts, Diggs will have had about 10.5 months of recovery from his ACL tear. If the team does hold him out for a week or two, it will likely be due to an abundance of caution and due to his age.

Of course, fantasy managers who draft Diggs should be prepared to be without him for at least a week or two. Perhaps stashing rookie WR Kyle Williams, who I think is soon to be a star receiver, is a good idea. He's been dusting coverages and getting wide open in preseason games, as he did in college.

Eliot Wolf said #Patriots WR Stefon Diggs is ahead of schedule in regards to his ACL injury.

🎥 @Pats_Radio pic.twitter.com/b0RuawbbGf

— 98.5 The Sports Hub (@985TheSportsHub) August 18, 2025

Perhaps they mean he's ahead of schedule, given his advanced age (advanced for a wide receiver), but who knows. It's hard to be committal here. I'd be more bullish if he were a lot younger, but they just paid him a chunk of change, so perhaps it would be to their benefit to make absolutely sure he won't reinjure himself.

Stefon Diggs 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

Diggs feels, to me, like one of those players who has a few big games, convinces the majority of fantasy managers that he's back, and causes a scramble for trades for him in redraft leagues. Then, he has his production sink late into the season. Older players have more worn-down bodies that are less resilient.

The NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint, and every single player in history who's not a complete liar has reported that the injury rate is 100 percent and that everyone is "hurting" toward the end of the regular season. Combine this with Diggs' likely to be reduced overall athleticism, and ... I'm not so excited about him.

At least from a tape perspective, Henry was absolutely nothing special. Problem is all of the Pats WRs/TEs were basically completely awful. This is the Kyle Williams/Stefon Diggs show in 2025. Williams is a stud and I'm betting he's the WR1https://t.co/Vn2GxqH26Y

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 30, 2025

It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming that any rookie drafted after the second round who doesn't have a lot of preseason hype won't be super impressive. I'm willing to bet that Williams will buck that trend. That doesn't mean Diggs won't have a few nice PPR weeks, but I'm taking Williams.

Swing for the fences, they say, and drafting a 31 and soon-to-be 32-year-old wideout doesn't constitute that.

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