Blogging The Boys
It doesn’t feel like that long ago when the Dallas Cowboys were sitting pretty at cornerback. This team was expecting to have both its All-Pro cornerbacks healthy again and eventually add a promising young rookie to the mix. How could we not be happy with that?
Sadly, things have not worked out as fortuitously as we hoped. It’s been quite the opposite, in fact. Every element of the Cowboys’ cornerback situation has turned out poorly. Every single one. In less than a full season, the outlook at cornerback has gone from pleasantly hopeful to desperately in need of assistance. Let’s take a look.
It’s amazing to think about how exciting it was to watch Trevon Diggs pick off 11 passes during his second year in the league back in 2021. The guy was such an incredible ball-hawking corner who had a football magnet for hands. Sure, he had a little gamble in him, and sometimes that left him exposed, but more times than not, his decisions worked out favorably as he racked up the interceptions. With each additional pick, the excitement grew. It was fun to watch.
That is why it’s so baffling to see things transpire as they have. Diggs had a good third season, earning Pro Bowl honors, but then tore his ACL in practice early in his fourth season, less than two months after signing a five-year, $97 million extension. He returned in 2024, but he just didn’t look like the same player. He started the first 10 games before suffering a groin injury that caused him to miss two games. Shortly thereafter, we learned that his knee had been bothering him all year and that he would miss the final four games to undergo season-ending knee surgery, again on his left knee. Little did we know, the drama was just beginning.
The Diggs ordeal has been one weird story after another. This summer when he was docked half a million for not meeting the offseason program clause in his contract. He didn’t rehab at the Cowboys facility, and the team didn’t like that. As the days went on, the friction grew stronger. He suffered a mysterious concussion, which we now know resulted from a TV mounting mishap, so he was placed on IR in October. When he was healthy enough to return, he didn’t.
For weeks now, fans have been left wondering what was going on with him. It was recently revealed that his delayed return wasn’t health-related, but rather because the coaches had issues with his mistakes in Cover 2. His reluctance to follow the scheme led him to take chances in practice, resulting in bad plays. When they feel Diggs was capable of following the direction of the coaching staff, then he’d be back on the field, and finally, that time came on Sunday. Unfortunately, his return did nothing to aid the defense and only served to validate the team’s apprehension in bringing him back. While the fat lady is not...
