Dallas Cowboys Trash All-Pro Trevon Diggs While Moving Him To PUP List originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
OXNARD – The Dallas Cowboys arrived in Oxnard, Calif., for training camp on Sunday and management wasted little time in putting its big-money stars on blast.
The team’s practices begin on Tuesday, and among those who won’t be active for a time is cornerback Trevon Diggs, a star-level performer when healthy who missed six of the last seven games last season after requiring procedure to solve a bone graft issue.
Diggs was moved to the physically unable to perform (PUP) list on Monday; no surprise there, even as he has a stated goal of being ready to play in Week 1.
But he did not do something the team wished for him to do in the process … and owners Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones used the Monday stage here in Oxnard at the camp-opening press conference to express their displeasure.
Diggs lost $500,000 of his 2025 salary after failing to meet a requirement in his contract that he be present in the team facility for at least 84 percent of the offseason activities.
He chose instead to spend part of his time rehabbing his knee not with the team training staff, but rather in South Florida with his own personal trainers.
Jerry’s reaction to it all?
“We expect a player paid like Trevon to be here all the time,” Jones said of his former All-Pro cornerback. “We expect him to be leading. That’s not new … He didn’t earn it, he didn’t come. That’s in his contract, he doesn’t get that unless he’s going to be here.”
“The deescalation is contractual,” Stephen added. “It’s spelled out. When he decided to train in South Florida, he understood what the consequences would be.”
The money is one thing; the impression the decision has made on the front office is another … and this was nothing short of a trashing to a big-name, big-money ($20 million APY) player.
“Those parts of a contract go directly toward the leadership that he is as a player relative to the rest of the team,” Jerry said. “I’m big into showing anything you can do for leadership if you’re going to be one of these guys that’s in the top drawer of the money.”
The Cowboys don’t think Diggs will be ready for Week 1; midseason seems more realistic. But this public attack on the player – the second time the Joneses have done this regarding Diggs, who they feel didn’t fully commit to a previous rehab – casts a shadow over his future here.
(By the way, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and cornerback Josh Butler are also on the PUP list, with rookie cornerback Shavon Revel is on the non-football injury (NFI) list. Overshown could be ready by midseason, while Revel is targeting full health during this camp.)
Move off of Diggs now? Unlikely. Save millions by dumping him after the 2024 season? Well, listen to Jerry …
“It’s important to have the right body language and all of that when you are one of the rare, rare financially paid and gifted players,” the owner said. “You’ve got to have some leadership about you.”
And it’s clear the Joneses think Diggs lacks exactly that.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.