Thankful Quandre Diggs says surgery a success; Pete Carroll says Seahawks want Diggs back
Quandre Diggs had successful surgery to fix his broken leg.
Is he Seahawks future fixed, too?
Pete Carroll says that should be obvious by now that, yes, the team indeed wants Diggs back for 2022 and beyond.
Seattle’s Pro Bowl free safety went triple exclamation points on his social-media account online Tuesday night to describe the surgery he had in Phoenix. It repaired his broken right fibula and dislocated ankle.
Diggs, beloved by teammates in Seattle’s locker room, was injured in the fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ season finale Sunday at Arizona.
“Surgery was a success! Super grateful! Thank you all!” Diggs posted on Twitter.
Tyler Lockett stayed behind with whom Seattle’s wide receiver called “my brother, my best friend” in Phoenix while the Seahawks flew home from their win against the Cardinals and into the offseason Sunday night.
“Very unfortunate. Really, really sad,” Lockett said.
“When you just look at the position, being able to go to free agency, just all that stuff, being able to play the whole, entire season, all the way up to this point, it just sucks, to be honest.”
The game Sunday was the final one of Diggs’ contract.
“I got to talk to him. I was there. Just to see the pain and the hurt is heavy, because I know he’s played at such a high level all year. He’s been the MVP of our season, just on how he’s played,” quarterback and team captain Russell Wilson said. “I don’t think anyone has played any better across the league at that position.
“I know he’s a guy that deserves to get paid the right way. He’s a guy that deserves to get all the accolades.”
Diggs has been wanting a new Seahawks contract since the summer. He “held in” during training camp. He was at the team facility in Renton and participating in meetings and all-of-field work but refused to practice.
The Seahawks eventually got him back to practice and to start all 17 games this season by guaranteeing him $2.5 million up front before the opening game then adding a void year of 2022. That gave Diggs more money while his contract still ended with the end of the 2021 season.
“In my mind, nobody can tell me I’m not the best in the league,” he said of all NFL free safeties.
Diggs said that in early November, the day he became the only NFL player with at least three interceptions in each of the past five seasons (2017-21).
The leader the Seahawks traded with Detroit to get in the middle of the 2019 season finished the regular season tied for fourth in the NFL with five interceptions. That equaled the career high he set in 2020 for Seattle, when he tied for the NFC lead in picks. He also had 94 tackles, the most of his seven-year career.
Obviously beloved
Diggs was trying to change directions on a play midway through the fourth quarter Sunday at Arizona. His cleats were planted into the turf when a Cardinals offensive lineman fell onto his lower right leg.
Diggs appeared to be in tears as he was being carted off the field. He and his teammates knew the stakes: he was about 8 minutes from heading toward free agency and a chance at generational wealth following five interceptions and the first two Pro Bowl selections of his career in each of the last two seasons for Seattle.
“It was tough. For me it really hit home because he didn’t have to play in that game,” Reed said. “We weren’t going to the playoffs, obviously. He’s on the last year of his contract. He’s already had a Pro Bowl season. He’s already put everything that he had to put on tape.”
Carroll said initial prognosis is Diggs will be in rehabilitation for up to four months, but the Seahawks believe he will be ready to play at the start of next season.
But for whom?
Given the fact Diggs is unsigned for 2022 but obviously a hugely respected leader and member of the Seahawks, Carroll was asked Monday if he reassured Diggs on the veteran’s way to the hospital Sunday Seattle would re-sign him this offseason.
“No, I haven’t talked to him about that,” Carroll said. “But it should be implicit for us in messaging, because our message has not changed.
“All I can tell you is that he is an awesome part of our team, and we would love to have him with us. This injury is not going to be one that is going to keep him from playing, so we just have to go through it.
“Unfortunately, it is a really difficult offseason for him in the first three or four months. But he will get back, get going.”
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Still new to safety
Re-signing Diggs is a more expensive issue for the Seahawks now than it would have been before this season.
He just was named to his second consecutive Pro Bowl team, the second of his career. He’s become a locker-room leader. He nails his coverage assignments. And he pretty much never came off the field this season. He played 99% of Seattle’s defensive snaps. That was the most playing time of his career.
His $6.2 million per season in average salary was the 19th-highest among NFL safeties this season.
He, Carroll and anyone who knows the Seahawks’ colors are blue and green know Diggs is playing better than the 19th-best safety in the league.
Minnesota’s Harrison Smith (an average of $16 million per year), Denver’s Justin Simmons ($15.25 million per season) and former Washington Husky Budda Baker of Arizona ($14.75 million per) are the highest-paid free safeties. Baker plays a more interchangeable strong and free safety for the Cardinals.
Diggs turns 29 this month. He’s three years older than Baker, 10 months older than Simmons and four years younger than Smith. Baker has been selected to twice as many Pro Bowls as Diggs.
A ballpark figure the Seahawks could present Diggs had been around $14 million per year, before his injury Sunday. The Seahawks have the most salary-cap space for 2022 they’ve had entering an offseason in many years: $52.6 million. That’s sixth-most in the NFL, per overthecap.com.
So they have the money. Carroll says they have the desire.
“And we would love to have him with us,” Carroll said.
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 1:42 PM.
