No defensive player in the NFL may be making more plays these days than Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs.
The second-year playmaker has notched an interception in each of the first five games this season, leading the league with six interceptions overall.
The performance earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Month for September.
Diggs’ has been the key cog on a Dallas squad that’s second in the NFL in turnover differential (plus-7), thanks in large part to 10 takeaways from its defense.
He may be a newfound star in Big D, but he’s a familiar face to Patriots rookie QB Mac Jones, who he’ll face Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium.
Jones and Diggs battled often in their time together at Alabama.
“He’s a great player. I got a chance to practice against him a lot at Alabama,” Jones said of Diggs in his Wednesday evening press conference. “He has a really good feel for the game. He’s very instinctual, very smart, fast, quick, explosive, strong. So he does it all really well and I’m really proud of how he’s been playing. It’s going to be fun to get a chance to be on the field with him again.”
And did Diggs, who’s made interceptions look easy early this season, pick off Jones on the practice fields of Tuscaloosa?
“Oh yeah,” Jones admitted. “Yeah, he definitely made plays.”
With that history in mind and Diggs’ current production obvious, Jones will be focused on where his former Tide teammate is on every snap Sunday evening.
“For sure. He’s all over the tape,” Jones said. “He’s sideline to sideline making plays and playing his technique. You have to be aware of where he is at all times. Yeah, he makes plays and it’s not just him. There are other guys on the team that are also making plays. They all play hard. And they play together. It’s a really good all-around defense and they play together as a team. We got to be ready to go.”
But much like Jones has made it clear through five games that he has to balance being aggressive with his passes with being smart, the rookie QB isn’t simply going to ignore the portion of the field where Diggs is covering.
“Obviously you can’t be afraid of anybody or anything like that,” Jones said. “You just have to know where he’s at because you have to respect him, respect his game, respect his knowledge. And respect everybody on the defense and their coaching staff because they do a good job in preparation and it’s showed up on the tape. We have all the respect in the world for those guys and they are playing really well. And it will be a lot of fun to just compete with them.”
Just like Jones and Diggs competed back in the day on the practice field at Alabama.
