OXNARD, Calif. – As the Cowboys open training camp, they'll do so without Trevon Diggs on the field, who is recovering from a cartilage issue that ended his 2024 season early in the same left knee that he tore his ACL in 2023 and is on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list.
As Diggs has gone about the recovery process, he's done most of his recovery work outside of the Cowboys facilities in South Florida. In his latest contract, Diggs had a clause that stated he needed to participate in 84.375 percent of the offseason program at the Cowboys' facility.
He didn't, and because of that, the Cowboys decided to enact the de-escalator in his contract of $500,000, docking his 2025 salary from $9 million to $8.5 million. Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones made it clear that he wanted to see more of Diggs in the offseason.
"We expect a player paid like Trevon to be here all the time," Jones said in the team's opening press conference. "We expect him to be leading, expect him to be leading, but that's not new."
After Jerry Jones responded to the question about Diggs, Cowboys COO/co-owner Stephen Jones followed up.
"The de-escalation is contractual, spelled out." Jones said. "So he understood when he decided he was going to train in South Florida, he understood what the consequences would be."
The situation Jerry Jones compared it to was that of Deion Sanders during his time with the Cowboys, where Jones had to explain the importance of showing up to the future Hall of Famer.
"Deion was not necessarily a given to come to the weight room," Jones said. "I explained to him that it meant a lot for him to be in there… it's important to have the right body language in every respect when you are one of those rare, rare, financially paid and gifted players. You've got to have some leadership about you."
Clearly, there's a level of frustration from the Cowboys' brass in Diggs' absence and they want to see an uptick in the leadership department of his game, like how Jones has talked in the past and reiterated again on Monday about Micah Parsons needing to exhibit more leadership qualities before getting an extension done.
"He didn't earn it, he didn't come," Jones said when asked if there was frustration taking money away from Diggs. "That's in his contract that he doesn't get that unless he's going to be here… those are contractual things as Stephen said, it would be very detrimental to the team not to abide by the agreement."
While most of the questions were directed towards Parsons and Diggs on Monday, Jerry Jones made sure to not exclude the rest of the Cowboys who are under big contracts, once again emphasizing that with a big money deal comes expectations of being a leader.
"You've got 10-12% of people making two thirds of the money," Jones said. "It's incumbent upon that group right there to walk and lead, and it covers a lot of ground, what that is, to make that work."
