Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs has seen his season end early for the second year in a row due to a knee injury. And although the team is hopeful that it won’t impact his 2025 season, the two-time Pro Bowler could be cutting it close, and that’s the best-case scenario.
Diggs will undergo surgery to repair his left knee after suffering an injury in the team’s Week 14 loss to Cincinnati, the Cowboys announced over the weekend. The issue is reportedly with his articular cartilage, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, and apparently separate from the knee ailment that kept him out of Weeks 12 and 13.
“This is something that occurred during the [Week 14] game,” head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed in his postgame press conference after the team’s 30-14 win over the Panthers.
Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones elaborated on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan on Monday, saying he did not expect Diggs to be ready for training camp next summer and adding, “but I think his timeline will be right at the start of the season.”
Diggs had played every defensive snap of the Monday night meeting with the Bengals and then consulted with the Cowboys’ medical staff during the week. After missing multiple practices and some testing, the decision was made to keep Diggs home from the trip to Charlotte and proceed with plans for surgery.
“He was having to play with fluid in his knee. He was out there doing everything he can because he wants to play, he wants to compete, he wants to contribute,” Jones said of the 26-year-old Diggs.
“It’s certainly a very legitimate injury that’s gonna take him some time to recover from. We got a vision that we can get him ready to do next year.”
In his Monday post to X, Rapoport put the recovery time at “up to eight months.”
Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs to undergo surgery (knee), could be out up to eight months. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/HLZ2SigYtg
— NFL (@NFL) December 16, 2024
But not everyone is ready to automatically pencil Diggs in for Week 1 next fall.
The former second-round draft pick missed most of the 2023 season with an ACL tear in his right knee. Though he was able to be in the starting lineup for that season opener, there are rumblings now that the organization was dissatisfied with the way he approached the rehab stint.
“I can tell you that the Cowboys were not happy with the way he (Trevon Diggs) attacked his rehab” – @clarencehilljr with us.
Says Trevon’s new knee injury is serious and 2025 is in danger.
— Jeff Cavanaugh (@timeforjeffrey) December 15, 2024
“This is a serious knee injury,” explained longtime insider Clarence Hill Jr. of AllCity DLLS. “He could possibly miss most of next season.”
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Given the financial ramifications of his $97 million contract extension signed in July of 2023 and the return on that investment the team is getting on the field, expect Diggs’s status to be a major storyline for the coming offseason.
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