Trevon Diggs’ yearlong journey to prove he’s over his ACL and still elite

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs couldn’t help himself. Emotions were pouring out before the season opener against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 8.

Diggs was wrapped in a hug with assistant head coach Al Harris, who is more mentor than coach. His helmet and face mask covered his eyes, but his head was buried on Harris’ shoulder as they swayed back and forth.

Exactly 353 days earlier, Diggs had limped off the practice field, knowing his left knee was badly injured. The humid September air was sucked out of the Cowboys’ practice because everybody knew what was coming a few hours after he had an MRI.

He was diagnosed with a torn left ACL that would end his season.

Now, on a perfect September day at Cleveland’s Huntington Bank Field, just a short throw from Lake Erie, it hit Diggs, who is not known to show his feelings.

“I didn’t feel it until I was actually out there,” Diggs said. “It was, ‘Wow, I’m actually back.’ Yeah, it was emotional for me.”

After so much time away — a lonely journey to prove he was still one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL and worthy of the Pro Bowl status he held before the injury — Diggs showed he was not only back, it was as if he had never left.

With 9:06 left in the fourth quarter and the Cowboys leading by 23 points, Diggs intercepted a Deshaun Watson pass that went through Elijah Moore‘s hands.

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) September 9, 2024

It was Diggs’ 19th interception in 48 career games. He is one of 13 players with at least that many picks in their first 48 games. Since 2021, his 16 interceptions are the most in the NFL — despite sitting out 15 games last season because of the injury.

As good as it felt to get the ball back in his hands, Diggs later experienced the opposite emotion.

In last week’s 28-25 loss to the Baltimore Ravensthe Cowboys needed a stop to pull off an improbable 22-point comeback, but he was unable to prevent a 9-yard completion to Zay Flowers on third-and-6.

“That was s—ty on my part,” Diggs said. “I got to make that play regardless. That’s on me.”

But being on the field and getting ready to play at the New York Giants on Thursday (8:15 pm ET, Prime Video) is better than where he was a year ago, awaiting surgery.

THE JOURNEY BACK from an injury can be lonely. Players go to what a number of Diggs’ teammates refer to as “dark places.” Not two months before he was hurt, he signed a five-year extension worth $97 million that made him one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the NFL.

The games went on, and Diggs became something of a forgotten man.

Before this season began, ESPN asked coaches, front office executives and scouts for their top 10 cornerbacks in the NFL. Diggs was not included, probably because of his injury, listed only as an honorable mention. In ESPN’s survey in 2023, he was eighth. In 2022, a year after he had 11 interceptions, he was 10th.

When he was asked in training camp if he drew motivation from that, Diggs playfully asked what the list said, but he already knew.

“I feel like I’m in a league on my own,” Diggs said when he was taken off the physically unable to perform list in late July. “There’s nobody can do what I do.”

He mentioned DaRon Blandwho led the NFL with nine interceptions last season and set a league record with five pick-sixes. Bland has not played this season because of a stress fracture in his left foot and was also not among the top 10 corners, though he did receive some votes.

“We don’t care about no list,” Diggs said. “Our work will show on the field. [If] you can pull another DB on that list that did anything that we did, show me.”

This is as animated as Diggs will get publicly. Even with Diggs’ superstar status on the Cowboys, Micah Parsons calls him shy. They are something of an odd couple in their approaches. Parsons will talk about anything and everything to anyone. Diggs is more content to stay in the background.

As Diggs went through the rehab process, Parsons often went to his house. He tried to keep Diggs’ spirits up during the longest absence he has had from the game. They competed in video games and Connect 4. At training camp, they played ping-pong.

A lot of times they just talked football.

That’s where Parsons found Diggs’ spirit.

“Film room, on his own. Puts in the extra. He don’t look for credit from others. He doesn’t have to be here to show it,” Parsons said. “I can be calling Tre at 7:30, saying, ‘Why aren’t you on the game?’ He’s like, ‘Bro, I’m at [SandersFit Rehab and Therapy]. I’m getting extra treatment on my knee.’ I’m like, ‘Oh snap, hit me when you get home.’

“So he’s leaving here, going to get extra work on his knee to make sure he’s prepared. So it’s the things that no one else has to see. That’s kind of like who he is and who he’s become.”

Diggs puts in a lot of work to understand how opposing quarterbacks and receivers are going to attack him.

“He is definitely a savant of this game,” fellow cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. “He understands this game, and I really think he’s a genius at it, honestly. When he’s in true form, I feel like he’s one of the best defensive players in the game. It’s amazing to see.”

HARRIS PLAYED 14 years in the NFL for four teams, including a seven-year run with the Green Bay Packerswith whom he won a Super Bowl. He has been an NFL assistant coach in all but one season since 2013 and was named the Cowboys’ assistant head coach in the offseason.

When he talks about Diggs, Harris mentions his Hall of Fame teammate Charles Woodson and the ability to mirror a receiver’s route.

“Tre has an uncanny ability to catch the flash of the ball. So, as far as my job, it’s to get him to just get the proper reads, just let him go from there,” Harris said. “And I think the genius aspect of it is from there. … He runs routes. And it’s been a long time since you’ve seen a defensive player run routes as a defensive player.”

To get there, Diggs studies a quarterback’s three-, five- and seven-step drops to know what routes to expect. He studies the splits the receivers take in certain down and distances and knows he can eliminate some routes. He understands route combinations. From a simple stance, he can know what a receiver wants to do.

“I’ve been in the league for, what, five years now?” he said. “So I’m kind of accustomed to the game and know the game speed.”

The interceptions are not an accident.

“A lot of people think he’s just going out there guessing, jumping at stuff, but it’s a method to the madness,” Lewis said. “I respect it. I can see it from a mile away — he prepares like no other.”

Diggs peppers Dak Prescott with questions during the week and jaws at the quarterback on the practice field. Prescott said Diggs’ background as a receiver (two-time All-Washington D.C. Metro selection, played WR early on at Alabama) helps him at cornerback.

“He understands stems, breaking points, those things,” Prescott said. “And then he trusts himself. I think at the end of the day, when you play that position and you have the talent that he has, you have to trust yourself.”

After a torn ACL and months of rehab, that trust needs to be rebuilt. Can he plant and take off the way he did before? Will the knee hold up? Can he change direction in an instant or is there an extra move to get into the right position?

Through three games, it’s there. Just as it was before the injury.

“Just all the work I put in gives me confidence,” Diggs said. “I feel comfortable.

“And I feel better than what I was before.”