It feels like ages ago that Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs set the NFL ablaze with a league-leading 11 interceptions, including two pick-sixes, in his second season.
Diggs played well the following year, and he looked like an All-Pro to start 2023 before he tore his ACL in practice ahead of Week 3. It's been all downhill from there. He returned to play in 11 games last year, but another knee injury cut his season short.
That brings us to 2025, which has set the stage for an ugly divorce between Diggs and the Cowboys. The long-standing tension is making headlines yet again after the 27-year-old claimed to be healthy enough to play in Sunday's loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Appearing on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, Jerry Jones, who has insisted that Diggs isn’t healthy, was asked about why the former All-Pro didn't suit up and responded with a new criticism.
Jerry Jones today on @1053thefan said that players always want to return fast. With Trevon Diggs, he said his playstyle requires a certain level of health.
— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) December 16, 2025
Diggs will "go away from the scheme to make a great play. When he doesn't make that play, you can have a bad, bad, play." https://t.co/cuX86TDzih
Cowboys' Jerry Jones unearths new criticism on Trevon Diggs as relationship continues to sour
Jones had criticized Micah Parsons in the past for going against the scheme to make a play. Obviously, a player of Parsons' caliber should be allowed to do that.
Diggs, however, is a much more volatile player. His breakout 2022 season was clearly an outlier as far as interceptions and making plays on the ball.
In fact, he's only managed six pass breakups on 668 coverage snaps the last three years, per Pro Football Focus. For context, he compiled 31 pass breakups over his first three seasons. Granted, that was a much bigger sample size (1,751 coverage snaps, per PFF), but there is a significant downward trend here that coincides with Diggs' ACL injury. He's lost a lot of explosion and closing speed that helped him become an elite ballhawk.
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At this point in his career, Diggs would be better served playing in-structure. He doesn't have a pass defended this year, and his last pass breakup came in Week 14 of last season. More importantly, he is allowing a whopping 19.6 yards per reception and 154.9 passer rating when targeted. Does that sound like someone who should be free-styling to create a splash play?
Of course, all of this is moot if Diggs isn't activated off injured reserve before Saturday. If he isn't, he will revert to season-ending IR, and you can all but guarantee that the Cowboys will move on in some capacity after the season.
This relationship has clearly run its course, and it’s bound to get uglier once the breakup becomes official and Diggs is free to tell his side of the story.