Once an All-Pro cornerstone, the star defender’s journey from Dallas starter to late-summer signing reveals a dramatic evolution in the Cowboys' secondary depth and roster strategy.
It was less than 11 months ago that the Dallas Cowboys entered a two-game stretch against the New York Giants and Chicago Bears without DaRon Bland.
And their top established option at cornerback was Trevon Diggs.
Bland suffered a foot injury in practice ahead of Dallas' Week 2 matchup with New York, leaving Diggs as one of the Cowboys' starting cornerbacks for a 40-37 overtime win over the Giants on Sept. 14 and again in a 31-14 loss to Chicago seven days later.
Think about how different that sounds now.
Shavon Revel Jr. hadn't played an NFL snap. Cobie Durant was still a Los Angeles Ram. And with Bland sidelined, Dallas was relying on Diggs, who was still trying to rediscover his All-Pro form after two injury-plagued seasons, to help hold together a cornerback room without many proven answers.
Fast forward less than 11 months ... and Diggs is now a Seattle Seahawk.
That's not really the interesting part.
Everything that happened between those two points is.
Diggs played Dallas' first six games before an at-home accident put him in concussion protocol. A knee injury was later added to the injury report, and the Cowboys placed him on injured reserve on Oct. 25.
He eventually returned Dec. 21 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Nine days later — on Dec. 30 — the Cowboys waived him.
Green Bay claimed Diggs the following day, inheriting the remainder of the five-year, $97 million contract Dallas gave him in 2023.
His stay didn't last long.
Diggs appeared in the Packers' regular-season finale and then played just one defensive snap in Green Bay's Wild Card loss to Chicago. On Jan. 20, only 20 days after the Packers claimed him, Green Bay released him.
Then came the part that might provide the most perspective on where the Cowboys were only months earlier.
Nobody immediately came calling.
February passed. So did March and the beginning of free agency. The NFL Draft came and went. Training camps opened in July ... and Diggs remained on the open market.
It took until Aug. 19 — nearly seven months after Green Bay released him — for the former Cowboys All-Pro to land another NFL job.
The Seahawks worked Diggs out Tuesday and agreed to a one-year deal with him Wednesday.
Even the circumstances surrounding his new team provide some interesting context.
Seattle has spent the past week exploring additional help at cornerback and also intends to sign former Detroit Lions first-round pick Terrion Arnold, who is facing eight felony charges.
Arnold's deal has not yet been finalized, and NFL Network reported that he will be placed on the Commissioner's Exempt List once he signs, preventing him from practicing or playing while on the list.
None of that means Diggs suddenly can't play.
It does make September 2025 pretty fascinating to revisit.
When Bland couldn't play against the Giants and Bears, Diggs wasn't a veteran Dallas was working out in August to see what he might have left.
He was one of the Cowboys' starting cornerbacks.
Now compare that room with the one Dallas has in August 2026.
Bland remains atop the room, while Revel is finally getting the healthy offseason he didn't have entering his rookie season. After starting five of the seven games he played as a rookie, Revel entered training camp competing with Durant, Caelen Carson and others for the starting job opposite Bland.
And he's made a pretty strong case for himself thus far.
Dallas also added Durant in free agency, giving the Cowboys another experienced option in a cornerback room that doesn't have to be built around the hope that Diggs can become the player he was in 2021 again.
Does that mean the Cowboys have solved cornerback?
Of course not.
Bland has to stay healthy. Revel still has plenty to prove in Year 2. Durant has to establish himself in a new defense.
But there's a difference between having questions ... and having nowhere else to turn for answers.
On Sept. 14, 2025, Dallas needed Diggs to start when Bland couldn't.
Eleven months later, Diggs needed until Aug. 19 to find his next NFL team after Green Bay moved on from him in January.
Trevon Diggs didn't suddenly become a worse football player because he signed with Seattle on Wednesday.
The Cowboys simply don't need him to be the player they needed him to be 11 months ago.
And considering how quickly Dallas' cornerback room was tested without Bland last September ... that might be the best evidence yet of just how much has changed.
