Trevon Diggs, starting cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys has had an… interesting rookie season to say the least. Drafted by Dallas in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, he was expected to turn a much-maligned secondary into a consensus top-10 unit. The defense had big name edge defenders, a blue-chip linebacking corps, and some well-known free agents; a solid DB group was the missing piece. …Except it wasn’t. They’re missing much more. Much much more. The Cowboys defense is on pace to allow the second most points in NFL history, as they currently give up 32.2 points per game. And while the secondary has struggled throughout this, I don’t believe you can blame much of this on Diggs.
Being recruited by Nick Saban to play for the University of Alabama, Diggs was originally a wide receiver. However, after his freshman season, he switched to defense full time and became the quintessential Bama cornerback: big, tough, athletic, and ultra-competitive. Even though he was viewed as one of the top CB prospects in the draft, he slid to the second round and where the Cowboys promptly scooped him up. And while expectations were high, he hasn’t exactly met them. But if you take a deeper dive into the schedule, it’s easy to figure out why. In the first nine games of his career, Diggs has matched up against Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Odell Beckham Jr., DeAndre Hopkins, and other elite receivers. So, it’s easy to understand why he’s struggled, as most athletes facing that line up would.
Another possible reason that Diggs is struggling is head coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. McCarthy hiring Nolan seems to be more a favor than anything else as Nolan was the coach that gave McCarthy his first offensive coordinating gig with the 49ers in 2006. Nolan hasn’t had a defensive coordinator job since 2014, where his Atlanta Falcons ranked last in the league yards allowed. His poor coaching seems to continue as the Dallas defense ranks amongst the bottom four teams in total defense (29th in yards allowed and last in points). A reason for these poor rankings, and subsequently Diggs’ struggles, is that the scheme’s he’s employing might be too complex for players that didn’t have an offseason to learn it. In a January interview Nolan had this to say, “I do believe you have to have a good mix between man and zone, there are different types of mans (coverages) and different types of zones. You don’t want to create so much volume that you don’t have an identity…” However, creating a unit without an identity seems to be exactly what he did, and the team has begun to collapse because of it. Players have even begun to call out coaches, leading many to believe that they have lost the faith of the locker room.
Even with all the drama surrounding the team and its coaches, Diggs is second among all rookies in forced incompletions with 10. He gets targeted a lot and for what it’s worth, he never backs down. Veteran linebacker and team leader Sean Lee had this to say about his young teammate, “He makes a ton of plays… he’s so talented for a young guy. The plays he makes, you don’t see young guys making that. It’s a matter of time before he becomes one of the best players in the league, he’s that good.” The last two games Diggs has played show that his game is improving. Against Philadelphia in Week 8, Diggs intercepted Carson Wentz twice. His first interception was a spectacular toe drag in the back of the endzone. The second interception was on a horrible deep ball by Wentz, but Diggs still showed exceptional ball tracking ability and made a nice over the shoulder catch. The following week against the Steelers, before leaving with injury, Diggs had one of his more physical games, leading the team with seven tackles. Improving his tackling and physicality is one of the things that will allow Diggs to take the next step, so the Steelers game was very promising. The next step for Diggs will be to improve off coverage as he can occasionally lose feel for where a receiver is and has trouble in his blind spots. Those improvements will come in time as he gets more on field experience.
Despite a dark cloud surrounding not just his team, but the entire NFL season, Diggs’ potential has managed to shine through. While he has his shaky moments this season, Trevon Diggs will develop into one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL.