Timely arrival: ‘Amazing’ Quandre Diggs has reformed Seahawks’ secondary, defense
Pete Carroll says sometimes it’s good for a team to “get popped in the mouth” to remind it of the need to be even better.
His Seahawks have found the right guy to pop back.
Quandre Diggs has been a revelation in his debut with Seattle. The former captain of the Detroit Lions defense the Seahawks got in a trade in late October has three interceptions, a touchdown, three passes knocked down, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble in his four games with his new team. The three interceptions in four games ties his career high for an entire season.
Yet he’s been so much more than that.
Diggs’ crunching hits on receivers and ball carriers and his wide range from sideline to sideline and deep as a free safety has reformed how the Seahawks play in the defense’s back half.
Before Diggs got here, the Seahawks had Tedric Thompson misplaying passes that went for multiple touchdowns and big plays in the first half of the season. They were trying more two-deep, cover-two defense with Bradley McDougald also back deep, to help Thompson. They tried Lano Hill and rookie Marquise Blair back there.
It was sub-optimal, for sure. A revolving door on the last line of defense is no way to make the playoffs and Super Bowl.
More cover three
Diggs’ arrival has the Seahawks back to playing more single-high safety coverage, cover three, as they did in their Super Bowl years with Earl Thomas over the top. That change has given McDougald more responsibility closer to the line as a run-stopping strong safety, which he loves and thrives at doing.
Against deeper-passing, less-running teams, Seattle is also using Diggs and McDougald as deep safeties together in cover two. That makes the defense better, more varied and versatile than it was before the trade that was a steal — Diggs from the Lions for a fifth-round pick.
Yet Diggs is even more than all of that.
He is a leader. He showed that following his first loss as a Seahawk on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
“We all know what we’ve got to do, everybody on the team,” Diggs said.
His back fittingly was against the giant, scarlet-painted USC wall outside the visiting locker room at the Memorial Coliseum.
“We’ve got to lock in,” he said. “We can’t settle. We know we’ve got to win out these last three games. And that’s what we plan on doing.”
The Seahawks (10-3) lost for the first time in six games this past weekend, 28-12 to the Rams. That was despite Diggs’ two interceptions in the second half, and a return of one for Seattle’s only touchdown.
The defeat shoved the Seahawks out of first place in the NFC West. They went from a chance at holding the top playoff seed in the conference to fifth.
Yet, as Diggs said, it’s still all right there for Seattle.
Win at Carolina (5-8) on Sunday, then at home against Arizona (3-9-1) on Dec. 22 and against San Francisco (11-2) in a huge decider Dec. 29 at CenturyLink Field, and the Seahawks will win the division. They would have at least one home playoff game and possibly a first-round bye.
That’s what Diggs was talking about after the loss in L.A.
His teammates were talking about how great Diggs has been for them.
“He’s been amazing,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said.
Wagner would know. He’s a three-time All-Pro middle linebacker in the middle of Seattle’s defense, the co-franchise cornerstone with Russell Wilson.
Diggs versus the Rams
Wagner watched Diggs attempt to turn Sunday night’s game around by himself.
Diggs sped across from the middle of the field and intercepted Jared Goff’s pass in the third quarter when receiver Robert Woods inexplicably stopped on his route outside. Diggs ran 55 yards untouched the other way for a touchdown that got the Seahawks to within 21-9 of the Rams early in the third quarter.
“Incredibly timed play,” Carroll said.
On the Rams’ next drive Diggs played deep center field. He zoomed over to help out cornerback Shaquill Griffin on a deep route by Brandin Cooks to the goal line on third down. Diggs intercepted another pass by Goff, deep outside to the right. That prevented at least a likely attempt at a field goal by Los Angeles and kept the score 21-9.
Yet the Seahawks’ offense let Diggs and the team down. It did nothing with Diggs’ turnovers, nor with Rasheem Green’s blocked field goal in the second half.
What has Diggs, who turns 27 next month, showed Carroll, the former defensive back and DBs coach?
“What it should show you — because it shows me — (is) that he’d been there before. He had a chance to make a big play and he made it look like it was just as easy as could be,” Carroll said of Diggs’ interception and touchdown.
“And it’s not the first time he’s done that.”
The Seahawks can have two more seasons of this, too. They inherited Diggs’ contract from Detroit. It has two more years on it after this one, with a total base salary of $10.35 million scheduled to him in 2020 and ‘21.
On Pete Carroll’s radar for years
Carroll’s seen most of Diggs’ NFL career, from afar. He’s been on Diggs since 2016. That was when he was a second-year cornerback with the Lions, on his way to play free safety, strong safety and nickel defensive back from 2015 until this October in Detroit.
No wonder Lions players were bummed when their team traded Diggs.
“So he’s just a really good ball player,” Carroll said. “We’ve been telling you about his savvy, his instincts and how natural a player he’s been. I thought that was obvious there (on the interception for a touchdown in L.A.). And, also, the other pick was a really good one, too. He went and helped outside of his area to go make a play by reading the quarterback.”
That was all in the second half. It was 21-3 Rams in the first half.
Diggs says energy from the start from the defense, from the entire team, is the key to Seattle winning these final three games and the Seahawks earning what they have been shooting for all season.
Since before Diggs was a Seahawk.
“I think we’ve got to come out with better energy,” he said. “I think that starts with us, starting with the leaders, including myself. We’ve got to bring that energy as a team, offense and defense. We know what we’ve got to do.
“At the end of the day, it’s one loss. We’ve got three more games to get.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 8:57 AM.
