His price soaring, Seahawks’ Quandre Diggs picked to another Pro Bowl with Bobby Wagner

In one year, Quandre Diggs has gone from not having been selected for the Pro Bowl to becoming what Bobby Wagner is to NFL all-stars.

A mainstay.

The 28-year-old Diggs was selected to the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive season Wednesday in league- and fan-voting results announced by the NFL. He had his fifth interception this season Tuesday in Seattle’s loss at the Los Angeles Rams. He’s tied for most interceptions among NFL safeties and fourth-most among all defensive players.

Diggs has tied his career high with the five interceptions with still three games remaining in the season. That ties his career high from last season when he became a Pro Bowler for the first time in his first full season with Seattle. Diggs has 13 picks in 36 games for Seattle, since his October, 2019 trade from the Detroit Lions.

His price is soaring on the new contract he’s wanted from the Seahawks since before last summer. His deal ends in three games.

“He has been a really steady force. He’s been obvious,” coach Pete Carroll said, after Diggs’ latest interception against the Rams and former Lions teammate Matthew Stafford. “His hitting, his alley play (from behind Wagner and the linebackers) in the running game is really as good as it gets. And he is a real ball hawk. That was a great open field pick that he had, big, spread field and he saw it coming, got a great break on the QB, and made it look easy.

“He’s just a really complete football player and he’s a very important leader and guy back there calling the shots and directing traffic. He’s doing everything.”

Sounds like a guy the Seahawks should have re-signed already.

Diggs has had a consistent explanation for his interceptions from the center-field spot in Seattle’s defense.

“It’s my football IQ,” he said again following Tuesday’s game.

Wagner was the Seahawks’ other Pro Bowl selection for their disappointing 2021 season. The middle linebacker and team co-captain got chosen for the eighth consecutive season. Wagner, 31, leads the NFL with 158 tackles this season.

Wagner’s eight Pro Bowl selections ties quarterback Russell Wilson and Hall of Fame defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy for second-most in franchise history. Hall of Fame left tackle Walter Jones had nine Pro Bowls.

Wagner is six-time All-Pro, the most of those even-more-elite selections in Seahawks history, two more than Jones.

Wagner needs 10 tackles in Seattle’s final three games — Sunday against Chicago, Jan. 2 at home against Detroit and Jan. 9 at Arizona — to break his franchise record of 167 tackles from 2016.

Dickson an...alternate?

Seventy-two-year-old Hall of Famer Ray Guy must be punting for some NFL team for Michael Dickson to be a Pro Bowl alternate.

Dickson pulled off a crazy double punt — recovering his own blocked punt then booting the ball again, 68 yards — in October against the Rams.

The All-Pro as a rookie draft choice the Seahawks traded up to get in 2018 has been Seattle’s best and most consistent player all this season. Tuesday at L.A. he placed his 35th punt this season in the 20-yard line. He controls punts as if he is controlling them with a joystick.

The Seahawks’ other Pro Bowl alternates for 2021: the recently subpar Wilson, left tackle Duane Brown and special-teams captain Nick Bellore.

Gregg Bell

The News Tribune

Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10. Support my work with a digital subscription