Sep. 5: Diggs may not be holding in after all. A source tells Adam Jude of the Seattle Times that Diggs is merely staying away from the practice field as he works to finalize an insurance policy to protect him in case he should suffer an injury this year. Diggs himself has said that he will be on the field for the Seahawks’ regular season opener next week, if not sooner.
“As soon as this little business thing that I gotta do, as soon as it’s done — signed, sealed, delivered — I’ll be back at practice,” Diggs said. “But, I mean, I wouldn’t call it a ‘hold in.’ I would say I’m just getting some things cleared up and I’ll be back with my teammates pretty soon.”
Aug. 29: The Seahawks and safety Jamal Adams finally agreed to a long-term extension earlier this month, clearing one major item off of Seattle’s agenda. The team is still in a holding pattern with left tackle Duane Brown, and now Adams’ running mate at safety, Quandre Diggs, is staging a hold-in of his own, as Brady Henderson of ESPN.com observes.
Diggs is entering his platform year, and we heard back in July that the 28-year-old DB was seeking a new deal. No reports on negotiations between the two sides have surfaced, and Henderson says its unclear if the Seahawks want to give Diggs a new contract at this point. The club is taking a similar stance with respect to Brown, though the ‘Hawks are now said to be exploring some sort of compromise that allows Brown to increase his 2021 compensation without adding years onto his existing deal.
Diggs, who held himself out of practice this week, was acquired by Seattle in a pre-deadline deal with the Lions in 2019, and he has been well worth the fifth-round choice that the Seahawks sent back to Detroit. He played in just five regular season contests for the ‘Hawks in 2019, though he did pick up three interceptions in that span. Last year, he enjoyed perfect attendance, racking up five picks and 64 total tackles en route to his first career Pro Bowl bid. Pro Football Focus assigned him a middling 63.1 overall grade, good for 52nd out of 94 qualified players, but his on-field impact belies that ranking.
When it consummated the trade, Seattle picked up the three-year, $18.6MM contract that Diggs had previously signed with the Lions. The $6.2MM AAV on that deal is now the 19th-highest figure in the safety market. While he will certainly not eclipse, or even get close to, Adams’ $17.5MM AAV, a $12MM/year contract seems to be a reasonable ask.
Head coach Pete Carroll addressed the matter on Friday, saying, “I think [Diggs is] making a bit of a statement now, but I have nothing for you to update. He deserves to do that.” Last night, Carroll was non-committal when asked if he thought Diggs would return to practice this week (Twitter link via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times).
Diggs has taken to Twitter to express his thoughts, saying, “Can’t deny me what I deserve,” and Adams spoke out in support of his teammate. “He deserves it and hopefully we can get that done,” Adams said. “I’m not the GM, so I don’t know when. His time is going to come. They’re going to do right by him.”
As it stands, Diggs is due to earn $5.95MM in base salary in 2021. He had a $100K offseason workout bonus and can earn another $100K in per-game roster bonuses.
Not sure what to make of the NFC West.
SF: QB issues. Solid elsewhere
Rams: I never thought much of M Stafford. Somehow his decade plus losing in Detroit is overlooked because of ‘management’.
Cards: Everything I read, the HC isn’t that good.
Seattle: Should be their division, but they insist on a running game and good D in 2021? While having a HoF QB on the roster.
Only a Seattle fan would think the Seahawks will win this division. Both the 49’ers and the Rams have better athletes and better coaches. As for the Cardinals, the only reason they won’t go 6-11 is their patty-cake nonconference schedule (Jax, Det, Hou, Car).
I’m not a Seattle fan, but if you think a .450% winning percentage is good (SF Shanny’s) you may want to reconsider. Rams HC is good, not SF’s.
In defense of arty, that’s what folks were saying last year too…. And the Hawks eventually won their division. Only to get thumped in the first round of the playoffs though…
Hear this every year. See you in January
People have been saying that about Seattle for about 7 or 8 years… and they’ve done nothing but go to the playoffs, won the division last year, and have a much deeper roster this year in addition to having the most established and successful front office and coaching staff in the NFC West. Their quarterback is exceedingly better than anyone in that division by a mile – which makes a huge difference.
Yea sure Shanahan is a better coach. Carroll let 1 Super Bowl slip away. Shanahan has let 2. Now what is their regular season records? Not even a Seattle fan but to say Shanahan is a better is a JOKE. Turn of sports radio and look at the stats.
Yeah, I personally think Carroll is overrated, but Shanahan hasn’t earned the reputation to be considered the best (or even second best) coach in the division. Carroll has a long history of mostly having success, and Shanahan (two seasons ago notwithstanding) just hasn’t done that. Now, a lot of that isn’t his fault, but he still has to accomplish that before he can get credit.
Milehigh- there’s no disputing the Rams have better athletes in some areas but Seattle has a better athlete at THE most important position: QB and when you have RW3 back there? He gives you a chance in every sgl game.
I think you’ll see that, overall, the Seattle Defense will be much improved, esp this years pass rush. J Adams will have more experience in the system, Brooks is showing his 1st rd pedigree and Marquise Blair’s versatility could have a big impacting in the backfield.
The depth on the D-Line is as good, perhaps better than the 2013-2016 teams. Once Dunlap came over in the 2nd half of last season the Hawks were one of THE best (if not the top) pass rushing teams from week 8 onwards. We added Kerry Hyder and our top 2021 draft pick Darrell Taylor is fully healthy. We resigned Poona Ford and big Brian Mone on the inside- lookout!
Truth
arty!, Stafford had a top 10 defense in points allowed only once in 10 years in Detroit, and what a shock, he got his most wins that year, 11. He had a top 16 defense, theoretically above average, another three times, and made the playoffs with the 13th ranked D, the second best of his era. Their other six defenses ranked 19th through 32nd. Detroit’s running games also generally scraped the bottom of the barrel during his tenure. The2020 Rams, on the other hand, had the #1 D in the league last year in points allowed, and averaged more than 125 yards on the ground on offense.
My suspicion, though, is that they traded Goff for Stafford because Matt is almost twice as likely to pull off a 4th quarter comeback or game-winning drive as Jared, 23.64% vs. 11.59% (calculated from stats available on their Pro Football Reference pages), and they’re going to need that to get through that snake pit of a division and into the playoffs.
We’ll see. Matt S is like Kyle S. People always make excuses for them, stats and W/L records be damned.
Well, it’s a f***ing team sport, and Matthew Stafford has generally been on pretty crappy to mediocre teams, including both the defense and the running game, probably the two most critical elements in helping a QB get a winning record.
I’m not going to hold 2017 or 2018 against Shanahan (“Kyle S” made me thing of Kyle Sloter), as they were rebuilding years and he lost Garoppolo early in the latter. For 2020, I don’t give him a pass for not getting better depth at QB than Mullens and Beathard; they were known quantities by then. But the defensive injuries would be hard enough for any team to withstand. Still, with better quarterbacking, that would have been an 8-8 or 9-7 ball club, and that’s on Lynch and Shanahan.
Like I say, always excuses. For Matt ‘it’s a team sport’. For Kyle ‘injuries’. No other QB coach have had to deal with that? Mike Singletary had the same winning percentage as Kyle and was runoff quick as can be.
Don’t bet on either of them, bet against them.
As expected, a refusal to consider context or the whole team. Do you dispute my characterization of the Lions’ defenses and running games during the Stafford Era? No, you ignore them completely because you either can’t dispute the facts or just ignore them altogether, consciously or unconsciously.
Let’s do a comparison. Alex Smith was the QB1 from 2013-2017 with the Chiefs and made the playoffs four times In this same time period, Stafford made the playoffs twice. Though different in style, game manager vs. gunslinger, I think it’s fair to say that in overall quality, Smith and Stafford are pretty comparable. And yet the Chiefs won two more games per year on average than the Lions did during that five year period, 10.6 (53 overall) to 8.6 (43 overall). Was that because Smith was so much better a QB than Stafford, or Andy Reid so much better a game manager than Jim Schwartz or Jim Caldwell? Or, was it maybe because the Chiefs on average had the 6th best defense in points allowed every year, while the Lions had the 15th. And maybe it had to do with the Chiefs rushing for the 10th most yards per year, while the Lions on average came in 28th. My God, maybe that’s why front offices spend so much time and money on building TEAMS, and not just on finding and developing quarterbacks?
As for Shanahan, I offered injuries to the defense AND his and Lynch’s failure to upgrade the QB depth as the main reasons why the 2020 Niners fell back to Earth, and you just blank out the criticism. But yes, have enough injuries add up, and they will hurt a team’s record. It really does astound me that one has to remind experienced football fans of this what seems like every week of the year.
Between 2015-2017, Kirk Cousins had a 24-23-1 record in DC. That same time period, Matt’s record was 25-23. Both are terrible franchises. Does this mean Kirk is now awesome?
Last year NE had the highest Covid op-outs and injuries and were 7-9. That’s coaching.
Football Outsiders actually calculated the adjusted games lost due to injuries and COVID (opt outs included), and the Niners and Patriots were the two most impacted teams:
49ers (166.6)
New England Patriots (134.8)
Philadelphia Eagles (128.1)
New York Jets (123.9)
Dallas Cowboys (118.5)
link to footballoutsiders.com
The Niners’ adjusted games lost was actually the second worst in 20 years, by the way.
The Patriots finished 7-9, one win ahead of the 49ers at 6-10, and the Pats’ finish was due to great coaching, while the Niners’ finish was due to mediocre or bad coaching on Shanahan’s part, is that what you’re saying? One win means that much, even though the Niners were actually impacted more by injuries and COVID combined than the Patriots? Ooookay.
No, Cousins is not awesome now. But he is on a better franchise than either Washington was before they hired Rivera, or Detroit during the Matt Patricia era. What’s your point, because you’re actually supporting mine?
I’d would love to gamble w/ you; free money! Matt and Kyle are average; actually below average. Simple as that. Years of proof, but keep believing they’re good!
Hold-in? What’s the point of a contract with players like this? He signs, but expects that he can break his commitment at will. He signs and he his financially secure for life, but he wants more because player X got more. Imagine if management withheld or reduced contract salaries of players who didn’t live up to expectations.
How is he breaking his commitment? The season is two weeks out and it will get worked out. All he wants is an extension and the Hawks want to give him one. It’s just negotiating, relax. It’s not like this is new news by Brady, it’s been since Tuesday he hasn’t practiced and the expectation is something will get done. Brown has been ongoing but it sounds like they are working 9n a minor adjustment to appease him too
Is he breaking a commitment by playing and just wanting extended because his contract is over at seasons end? Not seeing how that breaks a commitment.
What a quandary
Diggs is a smart man.
“Diggs is merely staying away from the practice field as he works to finalize an insurance policy to protect him in case he should suffer an injury this year”.
Has he never heard of the NFLPA? It doesn’t reflect well on the union if Diggs has no confidence they can look after his interests if injured.
The NFLPA aren’t going to replace the millions he will lose after a career ending injury. Many players get these towards end of contract. Players can get injured and the long term care they need could break them. I played semi pro FB under Curt Marsh for a year. He made a few trips back to Oakland for hearings or Dr check ups for L&I. Not sure if it is still the case but players went through L&I then NFLPA ins. For Diggs to get to get a policy to protect himself is not unusual to wait this long to do it is odd. It might be on purpose to make a statement I would be shocked if he is not on the field next Sunday.
I honesty don’t know how many players go down this road but I have a hard time believing they get a good deal from those bloodsuckers at insurance companies. Maybe hiring a better agent early in the career could avoid having to rely on the added insurance option.