Quandre Diggs, and his play, are making more cases for a new Seahawks deal beyond 2021
All aboard the Quandre Diggs Appreciation Train.
Your driver: Quandre Diggs.
“In my mind, nobody can tell me I’m not the best in the league,” the Pro Bowl safety said after his latest interception in his last game, the Seahawks’ win over Jacksonville last weekend.
He said that about an hour after he became the only NFL player with at least three interceptions in each of the past five seasons (2017-21).
His third interception of 2021 came in the second quarter of Seattle’s 31-7 rout of the Jaguars. On a third down Diggs effectively baited Jaguars rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence into throwing deep into Seahawks territory to a seemingly open target. Lawrence threw on a line instead of a loft. Diggs broke on the ball as soon as it left Lawrence’s hand, pocketing a relatively easy, yet deft interception.
It was a total cat-and-mouse trick by a seven-year veteran against a seventh-game rookie.
Diggs said he knew Jacksonville offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and passing-game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, the last two Seahawks play callers before Shane Waldron became Seattle’s play caller this year, would test him on that route. The Rams and Cooper Kupp beat Diggs on a similar pattern last season.
New Orleans tried the same play — fake hand-off with flow to the left, a deep flag route from the right slot to left corner with a shorter “dig” route underneath that — at Diggs twice in Seattle’s previous game before Jacksonville. So Diggs said he knew it was coming from the Jaguars.
“I think that’s the IQ part people don’t see,” Diggs said.
“I mean, that’s just my game. ...
“I knew the route was coming. ...I knew with the next shock play they were going to try to cross my face.”
Diggs said he’s getting comfortable with repeated looks and how opponents are trying to attack Seattle’s secondary. Detroit’s former captain and nickel defensive back inside arrived in a trade from Detroit during the 2019 season.
“It’s only my fourth year playing safety, really,” he said. “I think a lot of people forget that. You know, I haven’t been doing this my whole career. I’ve been a nickel for three years of my career (2015, ‘16 and ‘17, playing 45%, 54% and 73% of the Lions’ defensive plays his first three NFL seasons), then moved to safety.
“So I think I’m doing pretty well at the position.”
His contract
The Pro Bowl team he made last season, when he had a career-high five interceptions for the Seahawks, was the first NFL all-star selection of his career. This season, opposing quarterbacks are completing just 47.6% of their passes at Diggs, according to Pro Football Reference.
Yet his $6.2 million per season in average salary is the 19th-highest among NFL safeties.
He knows he’s playing better than the 19th-best safety. It’s why he “held in” this summer. He was at the team facility for meetings and off-the-field work but refused to practice. He hoped that would get him a new contract from the Seahawks, beyond his deal that ends this season.
Diggs did not get his new deal. Not yet. To get him back on the field to practice for their opening game in September, the Seahawks turned $100,000 per-game roster bonuses into guaranteed salary. Diggs essentially got $5 million guaranteed even if he got hurt.
Does he still believe the Seahawks will take care of him with a big, new contract for 2022 and beyond, as he said he did this summer?
“I mean, we’ll see,” he said last weekend. “God only knows.
“I’m just here to play ball, keep getting interceptions and it will work out how it works out.
“But they know how I feel about this place. So, we’ll see what happens.”
Teammate Jamal Adams, who got paid this summer, has been saying the Seahawks should pay his safety partner, too.
“He’s been under the radar. He’s finally getting the love that he deserves, so I’m happy for him.”
A comp
Diggs hears that a lot, that he’s “under the radar” across the NFL. That provides Diggs with a comparable contract situation the Seahawks recently completed.
And when it comes to a player negotiating for a new deal, it’s all about “comps.”
“I know another guy on our team that I feel is underrated,” Diggs said of what he sees as his comp, “and that’s 16.”
Sixteen is the jersey number of Tyler Lockett. Many around the league overlook Seattle’s record-setting receiver because teammate DK Metcalf is so physically impressive.
“I think me and him are kind of in the same situation,” Diggs said of Lockett.
Diggs feels the Seahawks should know better than anyone in the league what he’s worth, just as the team knew Lockett was worth $69 million with $37 million guaranteed. That’s the four-year contract Seattle gave Lockett in March.
Diggs is four months younger than Lockett, who just turned 29. The Seahawks selected Lockett in the third round of the 2015 NFL draft. Detroit got Diggs three rounds later, in that same draft.
Lockett is earning an average of $17.25 million.
The league’s top-paid free safeties are Denver’s Justin Simmons at $15.25 million per season and Chicago’s Eddie Jackson, $14.6 million annually. Simmons, who turns 28 this month, was like Diggs named to the Pro Bowl for the first time last season. Jackson turns 28 next month. He was named All-Pro in 2018 and made the Pro Bowl in the ‘18 and ‘19 seasons.
The Seahawks are already paying the highest rate for a safety in NFL history. They gave Adams a $70 million deal with $38 million guaranteed this summer.
Safeties and cornerbacks
Would Seattle go to the top of the market with both its starters at safety, a position historically paid less than the more valued cornerbacks in the NFL?
Cornerback remains a Seahawks problem spot. They lost both their starters from 2020 when Pro Bowl veteran Shaquill Griffin signed with home-state Jacksonville instead, and Quinton Dunbar left in free agency to sign with Detroit in the same month this offseason. Since then, the Seahawks have tried Akhello Witherspoon, Tre Flowers, Sidney Jones, D.J. Reed and rookie Tre Brown at cornerback for this season.
Seattle benched then traded Witherspoon, benched then waived Flowers and last week benched Jones. Coaches moved Reed from left cornerback back to his right side where he shined late last season.
Brown, the second of the Seahawks’ three draft choices this year, recently came off injured reserve. He made his first NFL start last week in the team’s win over the Jaguars, after alternating into games with Jones the previous two weeks.
Diggs was impressed.
“I think he did great,” Diggs said of Brown.
“It’s our job to keep him focused and keep him locked in all throughout the game. It’s me and Jamal’s job to keep him focused and make sure he knows everything. He’s a young guy. He’s only been really practicing with us for a month so he needs to know the checks and things like that. ...
“I think he’s making tremendous strides and he’s like a little brother to me because he reminds me of myself when I was younger, personality wise.
“It’s kind of dope to see him go out there making plays, making big tackles, pass breakups. He’s really sticky in coverage.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 9:16 AM with the headline "Quandre Diggs, and his play, are making more cases for a new Seahawks deal beyond 2021."
