Cowboys cut Trevon Diggs early. Once a star, injuries and controversial incidents led to his swift departure.
FRISCO - We knew the Dallas Cowboys were going to dump Trevon Diggs sometime before the NFL business year was to begin in March 2026.
We didn't know they'd dump him while the calendar still read "2025.''
But that's exactly what just happened, with ESPN first with the Tuesday report that Dallas has waived the faded star.
Dallas was congratulated for being proactive back in the summer of 2023 when it signed Diggs to a five-year, $97 million extension that both a) made him one of the league’s highest-paid defensive backs and b) felt like a bargain.
Diggs had been a Pro Bowler the previous two seasons, and an All-Pro in 2021, when he led the NFL with 11 interceptions. He was colorful and gifted and a ballhawk and the love even extended to Cowboys Nation embracing his adorable young son, who became a celebrity via his cute quips on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.’’
But then the injuries piled up. And so did a series of incidents that changed the “color’’ of Tre’ being colorful.Diggs tore his ACL just two games into the new deal, and after another knee problem, he has played just 21 games in three years. He’s conflicted with management over his devotion to rehab, he’s conflicted with his coach about Dallas’ defensive system, he’s pouted following the trade of his pal Micah Parsons to the Packers, he’s fibbed about the Cowboys not informing him about when he’d be moved off IR, and he spent a huge chunk of the 2025 season sidelined in part due to - as he claims - a TV he was trying to hang from the ceiling of his $4 million mansion fell on his head.
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Bad decisions? Yeah, lots of ‘em. (Pro Tip: If you make $20 million per year, you can afford to hire a handyman to mount your big screen).
Bad play? Yeah, lots of that, too.
Diggs has allowed a 157.2 passer rating (according to Pro Football Reference) while in coverage in 2025.
How bad is that?
*Per “NFL Reseacher,’’ that’s the crummiest number among 616 cornerbacks with at least 20 targets in a season since 2020.
*It’s far worse than 2025’s next-poorest guy, the Giants’ Deonte Banks at 136.3.
*It’s painfully close to a perfect passer rating, which is 158.3.
It’s been speculated that a new defensive coordinator (working on the assumption that Matt Eberflus will be dumped) might fix Diggs. And of course, it couldn’t hurt. (Diggs would surely embrace, for instance, the return of Al Harris, presently the secondary coach with the Bears.)
But the aforementioned numbers aren’t about “systems.’’
They are about the fact that Diggs is no longer a $20 million cornerback.
Where was this always going? As I’ve pointed out often, the Cowboys built into his contract a spring-of-2026 escape hatch that will allow them to move him (via cut or trade) while creating $12 million of cap room.
I’ve seen some observers wonder, “Who would replace him’’? That’s a non-issue; between the NFL Draft and the $110 million Dallas can create in cap room in order to buy a free agent, a more productive cotnerback shouldn’t be hard to find.
After all, all his replacement would have to do to be superior to Diggs would be to stay healthy for more than half the games and serve up a QB passer rating of less than 157.2.
Maybe Diggs - who once he clears waivers - will move to Green Bay, where I bet Micah will strongly campaign for him. But a trade? My prediction is that Dallas would literally almost have to “pay’’ the a team to take him.
In the end, the sudden departure of Diggs won’t “leave a hole’’ in the roster.
And why not? Because as he’s “The Worst Cornerback in the NFL,’’ there’s been a hole there even while he’s been around.