Patriots Using Stefon Diggs’ History With Texans As Bulletin Board Material?

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs will see plenty of familiar faces across the formation during Sunday’s divisional round matchup with the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium.

Diggs, who is expected to play a significant role in the game, spent last season in Houston, where he finished with 47 receptions and 496 receiving yards in just eight games before tearing his ACL in Week 8 — which marked the end of his run with the organization.

It’s not like that marked the end for his friendships, however, as the veteran wide receiver shared this week that he remains in contact with Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud and wide receiver Tank Dell — the former of which spoke extremely highly of him this week.

“Stef is one of the best teammates I’ve had in my career, my life,” Stroud said on Wednesday. “He’s been amazing to my life, not just on the field but off as well. I think he’s super teammate oriented. Will always be a brother of mine, will always be a friend.”

Diggs’ new teammates were apparently focused on the words spoken by others, however…

ESPN’s Mike Reiss shared this anecdote in his weekly notebook on Sunday:

By the end of the week, one Patriots player relayed that he had heard some of the comments made by Texans players to reporters, which was adding to their motivation. That might have been in reference to Texans defensive backs, who credited receiver Stefon Diggs with helping them last year during his one season in Houston, before saying: “We’re about to bring it to him.”

Diggs didn’t seem to acknowledge the youngsters who he used to compete with every day, instead focusing on the facts.

“It was cool. I had a great time. Have a lot of respect for those guys over there, everybody including the GM [Nick Caserio] from the top down, coaches,” Diggs said, per Reiss. “Unfortunately for me, I got hurt. But fortunately enough, I landed here. Growing pains. You learn from a lot of things. It should be cool [playing them].”

The Patriots and Texans will fight for the right to advance to the AFC Championship on Sunday, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.