Trevon Diggs will share a locker room with Micah Parsons again, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who reported Wednesday that Diggs is joining the Green Bay Packers.
The Dallas Cowboys released Diggs on Tuesday for what head coach Brian Schottenheimer called a “culmination of multiple factors.” Diggs’ release came just two years after the Cowboys signed the two-time Pro Bowl cornerback to a five-year, $97 million extension.
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By claiming Diggs on waivers, the Packers will pick up his existing Cowboys contract, however, that deal has no remaining guaranteed money. So Green Bay will owe Diggs only one week’s pay, $472,000 — as well as another $58,823 if he’s active for Sunday’s Week 18 matchup versus the Minnesota Vikings, as reported by ESPN. If Diggs had cleared waivers, he would have become a free agent.
Instead, he’ll be with the Packers for the postseason.
Parsons had Diggs’ back this season
Green Bay won’t have Parsons, who’s out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL the star edge rusher suffered during a Week 15 loss to the Denver Broncos.
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The five-time Pro Bowler piled up 12.5 sacks in 14 games this season, his first with the Packers after an infamous contract standoff with the Cowboys that resulted in team owner Jerry Jones trading Parsons for three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and a pair of first-round draft picks.
Diggs was bummed about the way the situation went down, notably reacting on X with a broken heart emoji after the Parsons trade news broke in late August. Diggs, who played alongside Parsons for four of the corner’s first five seasons with the Cowboys, is close friends with the sack artist.
Parsons criticized the Cowboys earlier this season for their handling of Diggs’ health. Dallas placed Diggs on injured reserve in late October while he was still dealing with a right knee injury that had lingered this fall. His IR designation arrived less than two weeks after he suffered a concussion in an accident at his home.
The 2020 second-round pick and 2021 league interception leader was sidelined during training camp this year while rehabbing his surgically repaired left knee, the same one in which he tore his ACL in 2023.
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“Honestly, I feel like they f***ed my dog over, you know what I mean?” Parsons told Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein from the postgame locker room after the Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8. “He’s coming off a catastrophic knee injury, and I just didn’t think they did right by him. He didn’t participate all camp and he’s going out there playing Week 1 and 2. I just don’t think you do that to a player like that.
“And the type of knee injury he had, they forced him out there. He has no reps really. He’s telling me he was in warmup phase during Week 1. Even with the ramp-up, I just feel like you just don’t do that.”
Diggs’ return to action and sudden release
Diggs returned to the field in Week 16 even though the Cowboys were already eliminated from playoff contention. He made six total tackles but was targeted four times and gave up four catches for 43 yards, according to Pro Football Focus, during a 34-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The next week, in a 30-23 Cowboys road win over the Washington Commanders on Christmas Day, he allowed only one reception, per PFF.
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Five days later, Dallas released the one-time first-team All-Pro.
Schottenheimer said Diggs, a Maryland native, asked him after last week’s game if he could stay in the D.C. area to see family. Schottenheimer told reporters Wednesday that he turned Diggs down as well as other players who had asked that week to fly home separately, citing team protocol.
Diggs stayed anyway and skipped the team flight.
“It was one of many factors,” Schottenheimer said, per ESPN. “It was not the only factor. I’m not the Grinch that stole Christmas. I love Christmas. I love my family. But at the end of the day, we have a protocol that we go through, and the process was not followed.”
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Schottenheimer said performance was another factor. Diggs is still looking to regain the ballhawking success he thrived on during the 2021 and 2022 seasons when he stacked 14 interceptions and both of his Pro Bowl nods.
It was no secret Diggs was at odds with the Cowboys’ defensive scheme this season. He was vocal about wanting Dallas to play more man-to-man coverage.
Now Green Bay will get his services in the secondary, which lost cornerbacks Nate Hobbs and Kamal Hadden to injuries in last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
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