How might Stefon Diggs fit in David Blough's new offense?

The newest Washington Commander, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, is expected to be introduced to the media and join his new teammates for practice on Friday. Yesterday, I broke down what Diggs brings to Washington but today, I thought I’d look at how he might fit in David Blough’s new offense.

The Commanders have one established receiver set in stone in Terry McLaurin. McLaurin will most likely be the X receiver in this offense, as he has been since he was drafted. That leaves the Z receiver and slot receiver roles up for grabs. Those two roles can be quite different, but there is also some overlap in there too. Diggs is very much capable of playing both roles, having done so for the Patriots last year. He spent similar numbers of snaps in the slot as he did on the outside in New England

That gives the Commanders some flexibility. They’ll be hoping that rookie receiver Antonio Williams can develop quickly enough to claim the slot receiver role and become their version of Amon-Ra St. Brown in this offense. That would then leave Diggs to the Z receiver spot on the outside. But if Williams isn’t quite ready, Diggs can easily slide inside and open up the Z spot for the likes of Treylon Burks, Dyami Brown or Luke McCaffrey to try and win.

I suspect what we’ll see from Diggs is he’ll split time in both roles and while there is some overlap, they do require different things too. So lets see how he fits in both roles.

Z Receiver

Earlier this offseason, I wrote a post looking at what the role of the Z receiver might be in David Blough’s offense and if Treylon Burks might be the receiver to win the job. We’re expecting Blough’s offense to look similar to the 2023 Detroit Lions offense under Ben Johnson, where Blough was on the practice squad in his final year as a player before transitioning to coaching. That offense focused the majority of its targets to an interior trio of slot receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs. The outside receivers still had an important role, but the focus was inside and over the middle to those three.

The Z receivers in that offense were primarily used to stretch the field vertically and to attack the intermediate parts of the field on deeper crossing routes while the defense focused on that interior trio of weapons underneath. This meant that the Z receivers in that 2023 Lions offense ran a lot of deep overs, high crossers and deep dig routes. Last year with the Patriots, Diggs proved he was very much capable of doing that type of work.

This clip shows three examples of Diggs running variations of those types of intermediate routes across the middle of the field. The first play of the clip is a perfect example. Diggs lines up outside to right and has a short motion prior to the snap just to help give him a free release at the line of scrimmage. With that free release, Diggs works inside and vertical. He gets to about 10 yards of depth before sharply breaking off the route across the middle of the field, creating plenty of separation from the trailing cornerback. Diggs is wide open over the middle and makes the catch in stride despite getting a flash of a defender in the area. Diggs then continues after the catch, using his momentum to keep running across the field and pick up an additional 17 yards after the catch before being forced out of bounds.

The second play of the clip is a similar route, but this time he’s isolated to the left. The Patriots have both receivers to the right run deep post routes, vacating space behind them. Diggs runs his crossing route underneath those post routes and into that vacated space. The quarterback lofts the ball out to him, enabling a safety to break off from the deep post and drive down on the route. The safety arrives just after the ball and lands a big hit, but Diggs does a great job going up and making the catch and then holding on as he falls to the ground after the hit.

On the third play of the clip, we see a little more route nuance from Diggs. It’s a similar type of crossing route, but instead of just using his speed to cross the field, Diggs uses a nice stairstep move. At the snap, Diggs releases inside to sell a shallow crossing route. Once he reaches the 40 yard line, Diggs suddenly adjusts his angle to work a lot more vertically. Five yards later, he suddenly snaps the route off sharply and works more across the middle of the field again. This is known as a stairstep technique and it makes it very difficult for trailing cornerbacks in coverage to adjust to the multiple breaks. You can see just how effective it is here as Diggs runs away from his defender and is wide open for another big catch over the middle.

These are the types of routes that I suspect we’ll see a lot from the Commanders Z receivers this year, whoever lines up there. They could come off normal drop back passes or play-action passes, but expect to see a lot of them this year. Clearly Diggs is very accomplished at them and isn’t afraid of making tough contested catches over the middle. He’s also a big threat to turn those catches into bigger plays after the catch too.

But while those will be the primary routes for the Z receiver role in this offense, it won’t be the only thing the Z receivers will be asked to do. Over the past two seasons, we’ve seen Jayden Daniels connect well with veteran receivers on rhythm and timing routes. Things like curl routes, comebacks, deep outs, deep digs etc. Those are routes that the quarterback is looking to throw to a specific spot at a specific time. Daniels needs to be able to trust his receiver can not only run a good route and create separation, but do so while getting to the predetermined spot at the predetermined time. Diggs is very much capable of that.

Here we see Diggs isolated out to the right. He’s running a curl route, looking to sell a vertical threat and get just beyond the first down marker before breaking off the route and working back to the quarterback. Diggs isn’t necessarily the deep threat he may have been when he was younger, but he still understands how to get to the right spot at the right time and how to create separation while doing so. The cornerback in coverage allows him a free release and Diggs works down the sideline. He gets beyond the first down marker, but doesn’t run away from the corner with speed.

The corner actually looks fairly in control as Diggs approaches the top of his route. The corner runs stride for stride with him, staying on top of the route while also sticking close to Diggs. However, Diggs has the ability to suddenly cut off his route and break sharply without wasted steps. Diggs gets to the top of his route and almost immediately stops on a dime, leaving the cornerback to continue running past him. Diggs uses a slight veteran move that some may interpret as a push off, but others will say it’s a savvy veteran move that maximizes the separation. Diggs then works back towards the ball, creating two yards of separation as the ball arrives.

Notice how quarterback Drake Maye delivered that throw in rhythm with his drop and to a specific spot. If you pause the clip when Maye is delivering the throw, Diggs hasn’t made his break yet and the corner looks in a good position. This is where the quarterback has to trust his receiver to make the right break at the right time. Maye does that and Diggs repays that trust. This is something we’ve seen Daniels do well in his first two years in Washington too, but typically only with veteran receivers that he trusts like Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown.

The other major part of the Z receiver role in this offense is to stretch the field vertically. Diggs doesn’t have blazing speed to run by coverage at age 32, so he’s not going to be as dynamic as other options in that aspect. But he can still be a vertical threat in other ways. His use of route tempo can help lure defenders into a false sense of security before he suddenly bursts by them. He also has great ball skills, with the ability to track the ball down the field and adjust his body to however the ball is thrown to him. That means while he might not be a candidate to run by defenders down the sideline, he is an option to target with back-shoulder throws.