The Detroit Lions are exploring a potential addition to their secondary after giving a former Dallas Cowboys All-Pro cornerback, who once signed a $97 million contract, a tryout.
Detroit continues to evaluate options ahead of the season, and the latest candidate brings considerably more experience and accolades than the typical late-summer tryout player.
That cornerback is Trevon Diggs, according to ESPN‘s Adam Schefter, who reported the weekend tryout first. Diggs, a two-time Pro Bowler and former All-Pro, is trying to work his way back onto an NFL roster after a turbulent 2025.
Trevon Diggs’ Turbulent Final Seasons in Dallas
Diggs arrived in Dallas as a 2020 second-round pick out of Alabama and turned into one of the NFL’s most feared ball hawks almost immediately. His 2021 season remains the standard with 11 interceptions, plus two pick-sixes and first-team All-Pro honors. A second Pro Bowl campaign followed in 2022, production that landed him a five-year, $97 million extension in 2023.
The knee and head injuries that followed unraveled most of what Diggs built. He tore his ACL in a September 2023 practice, according to The Associated Press, then battled recurring knee problems into 2024 and 2025 that required surgery and limited him to eight games in his final Dallas season. Across the three years after signing his extension, Diggs suited up for barely 22 total games, a steep drop-off for a player once considered the cornerstone of the Cowboys secondary.
October brought the strangest chapter of his decline. Diggs left the team facility with concussion symptoms following what Dallas initially described only as a “home accident,” a vague explanation that set off weeks of internet speculation. He cleared it up in December, revealing a television mount fell from his ceiling and struck him in the head as he tried to install it. “I was trying to be a handyman,” Diggs said, as quoted by the New York Post.
Detroit Lions’ Cornerback Need Amid Diggs Fit
The Dallas Cowboys released Diggs in December. “It was really an accumulation of multiple factors. Performance, other elements,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said, according to CBS Sports’ Garrett Podell. A late-season dispute over Diggs skipping the team flight home from a Christmas Day win, on top of declining play and rehab friction, pushed Dallas to cut him with three years left on his deal. The move cleared roughly $12.5 million in 2026 cap space against just $5.9 million in dead money.
Green Bay claimed Diggs off waivers within a day, but the Packers barely used him and released him again in January, sending him back to the open market.
The Lions released cornerback Terrion Arnold this offseason, and analysts have repeatedly floated Diggs as a nickel and dime option opposite D.J. Reed. Rock Ya-Sin, Roger McCreary and younger pieces like Ennis Rakestraw give Detroit depth, but the room thinned once Arnold left. Detroit’s scheme under Dan Campbell leans physical, a fit for a boundary corner built for man coverage if he’s healthy.
Diggs finished 2025 without an interception, a far cry from his All-Pro peak. A tryout is a low-cost evaluation, and Detroit will need to see the surgically repaired knee hold up before trusting Diggs. He turns 28 in September and says he’s fully healthy, but the Lions have every incentive to make him prove it in camp. No signing had been reported as of Sunday.
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