Stefon Diggs Cleared by NFL After Domestic Abuse Investigation, Free Agent Future Now Open

The NFL has formally closed its investigation into Stefon Diggs, ruling that the veteran wide receiver did not breach its personal conduct policy following allegations made by a former personal chef. According to The Athletic, the league’s final decision was announced on Friday, June 12, 2026.

The investigation was initiated in December after a female staffer accused the 32-year-old of assault. Despite the gravity of the allegations, NFL officials permitted Diggs to continue playing throughout the New England Patriots’ 2025 playoff campaign — a run that ended in a Super Bowl LX defeat to the Seattle Seahawks. The league’s independent review proceeded separately from the criminal proceedings.

In May, a jury at Dedham District Court found Diggs not guilty of felony strangulation and misdemeanour assault and battery charges following a criminal trial that included what was described as unusual testimony from the accuser. Diggs was photographed leaving the courthouse on May 4, 2026. The NFL’s own process, however, continued until its conclusion this week.

With both the criminal and league-level reviews now resolved in his favour, attention turns to Diggs’ status on the free agent market. The Patriots released him in March 2026 citing salary cap constraints, ending his tenure in New England after one season. Following the trial verdict, his attorney publicly stated that Diggs deserves a place on an NFL roster — a position that some franchises had reportedly been cautious about committing to ahead of the league’s ruling. Sources suggest several teams had been monitoring the outcome before entering contract discussions.

Diggs was reported to have maintained an intensive training regimen throughout the offseason, and the NFL’s clearance now removes the final procedural obstacle to his signing.

The 2025 season represented a notable resurgence for Diggs, who posted over 1,000 receiving yards and four touchdowns for New England while serving as a stabilising veteran presence alongside rookie quarterback Drake Maye. It was his seventh career 1,000-yard season — a measure of consistency that underlines his standing among the league’s most productive receivers over the past decade.

Diggs entered the league as a fifth-round pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2015 NFL Draft out of the University of Maryland. He cemented his legacy in Minneapolis with the “Minneapolis Miracle” — a walk-off touchdown reception in the 2017 postseason that remains one of the most replayed moments in recent NFL history. A 2020 trade to the Buffalo Bills elevated his individual profile further; in his first season with Buffalo, he led the entire NFL in both receptions and receiving yards, and earned four consecutive Pro Bowl selections as quarterback Josh Allen’s primary target. A brief and injury-disrupted spell with the Houston Texans in 2024 followed before his Patriots stint.

Across eleven NFL seasons, Diggs has accumulated 942 regular-season receptions for 11,504 yards and 74 touchdowns, along with a First-team All-Pro selection. At 32, and now free of both legal and league-imposed uncertainty, he remains one of the more decorated wide receivers available in the current free agent pool.