The Dallas Cowboys sent a message to Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs: they will follow the five-year, $97 million contract extension they gave him in 2023 to the letter of the law.
That deal included a clause that stipulated the team could dock his salary by $500,000 if he missed at least 84% of the Cowboys’ organized team activities in the spring, per the Dallas Morning News. And Diggs wound up doing just that by opting to rehab from offseason knee surgery in South Florida as opposed to the team’s facility in Frisco, Texas, so the team exercised its right to penalize him.
“[It’s] spelled out,” Cowboys COO and EVP Stephen Jones said Monday. “He understood when he decided he was going to train in South Florida, he understood what the consequences would be.”
“We expect a player paid like Trevon to be here all the time,” team owner Jerry Jones added on Monday. “We expect him to be leading, expect him to be leading, but that’s not new.”
“No, I didn’t expect that,” Diggs said Tuesday, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “That kind of hurt my feelings. But it’s OK. Hopefully I make it back in incentives.”
Diggs has been marred by knee injuries the last two seasons after Pro Bowl campaigns in 2021 and 2022. He led the NFL with 11 interceptions in 2021, which garnered him his lone first team All-Pro selection. Since signing his five-year deal prior to the start of the 2023 season, he’s struggled to stay on the field, playing in just 13 games across the last two years. Diggs tore his ACL in practice in Week 3 of the 2023 season, and then another knee injury cut his 2024 campaign short and forced him to have surgery during the offseason. Dallas placed Diggs on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list on Tuesday to start training camp.
“They do a great job here,” Diggs said. “I just felt like it was in my best interest to go somewhere to get the full, undivided attention I needed, massages and the whole nine yards, to better and further my career, to make sure I’m good, ahead of schedule and that I can perform well. Like [when I tore] my ACL, I came back a whole two months earlier because of the work I put in during the offseason, off the field.”
The Jones family clearly pulled the lever on Diggs’ de-escalator clause as a proverbial wake up call, but Diggs said he’s not going to change his personal leadership style despite the hefty penalty.
“You’ve got a dynamic going on,” Jerry Jones said. “You’ve got 10-12% of your people making two-thirds of the money. It’s incumbent upon that group to walk and lead, walk and lead, and it covers a lot of ground … to make that work.”
“Personally, I’m not a vocal leader,” Diggs said. “I’m not going to be yelling, screaming at guys. How I’m going to lead is how I perform on the field and the things that I do in practice. That’s how I lead in my way. I will lead in my way and I will continue to lead in my way. I’m not going to change who I am.”
However, that doesn’t mean Diggs is a disgruntled employee. Given Dallas can free up $12.558 million in cap room by releasing him next offseason, it would be in the 26-year-old’s best interest to be the best version of himself in 2025.
“I’m still happy here,” Diggs said. “I’ve got great teammates, my friends, my brothers, we check on each other. We’re a tight group. I’m very happy here.”
New head coach Brian Schottenheimer refused to put a timetable on Diggs’ return. Dallas could certainly use him back on the field following the departure of versatile, veteran slot corner Jourdan Lewis. He signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency this offseason. Despite only playing 13 games the last two seasons, Diggs’ 20 career interceptions since 2020, when he entered the league as a second-round pick, are the second-most in the NFL and just one behind Atlanta Falcons safety Justin Simmons’ 21 in that span.
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