Quandre Diggs wants (and deserves) to be paid, and Pete Carroll already made it sound like he is going to be.
Diggs recently told Seahawks.com he would like to be back in Seattle but wants to “feel fairly compensated knowing that I’m a two-time Pro-Bowler (who received) All-Pro votes and (am) one of the best, if not the best, free safety in the NFL.”
“I feel like I did everything the right way to be compensated as well,” he said. “If it works out and they say they want to do it, let’s get it done.”
The cash equivalent of that resume is around $14 million – which would put Diggs in the top nine safeties. At $15 million, he would be in the top four.
Six safeties received more All-Pro votes than Diggs, who got three. The lowest-paid veteran is Micah Hyde, who averages $9.6 million. Hyde received 10 votes, the same as Budda Baker and Justin Simmons, who both average around $15 million.
Five other safeties are over $14 million as well, including Seattle’s Jamal Adams at a league-high $17.5 million.
The safety franchise tag will be $12.9 million – and that’s the fallback for Seattle if a long-term deal cannot be done. But both sides should be amenable to around $14 million per year – the 2022 cap hit would be much less than that, of course.
Carroll seemed to hint that he wants to keep Diggs.
After the disappointing 7-10 finish to 2021, Carroll told 710 ESPN, “We’ve got the nucleus of a championship right here, so we’re going to try to keep that together.”
He also emphasized that most of Seattle’s cap room would be used on re-signing guys.
“We have a lot of players that are going to be free agents that need to be on this team next year, so that money goes very quickly there,” he said.
He cautioned fans who think “we have all this cap space, (so) we can make all these moves and all that.”
“Well, that’s not necessarily how people should look at it,” he said. “They should be clear that we’ve got some wonderful players on this team that need to come back, so that money will go faster than you think and won’t be quite as free as it looks like right now.”
Diggs will be the most expensive player to re-sign — and he’s worth it.
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Diggs will be 29 at the start of the 2022 season.
Age of All-Pro safeties at the end of the the last five seasons:
2021: Kevin Bayard (28), Jordan Poyer (30), Justin Simmons (28), Micah Hyde (31), Buddha Baker (26)
2020: Tyrann Mathieu (28), Minkah Fitzpatrick (24), Buddha Baker (25), Jamal Adams (25), Jesse Bates (23)
2019: Jamal Adams (24), Minkah Fitzpatrick (23), Justin Simmons (26), Tyrann Mathieu (27)
2018: Eddie Jackson (25), Derwin James (22), Jamal Adams (23), Harrison Smith (29)
2017: Kevin Byard (24), Harrison Smith (28), Earl Thomas (28), Michah Hyde (27)
Nineteen of 22 were 28 or under. Draw your own conclusions, but it’s fair to wonder if Diggs’ best football is behind him.
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I am iffy on signing Diggs to that kind of money. And, whatever JS’s faults are, what player has he let walk for big money that played up to the contract? So if he lets him go, there is a track record. And I would rather spend $ on CBs than safeties. We already have 1 highly paid safety.
I think more important is to get a DC who can unleash Adams to his potential. If he can play to his potential, he might justify the cost to get him. Although at this point, that is a high bar.
that said, someone is getting paid no matter what, so if it is Diggs, and we get 2-3 more years like the last 2, I won’t complain
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You have to pay the guys who are making plays for you and Diggs is one of the few Seattle defenders who makes any plays. It doesn’t matter if he plays just two more good years — it’s still worth paying him.
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This is the quandary, so to speak: They may well be paying for past performance.
Diggs’ relative value comes down to what the next DC does with Adams. Mike Dugar argues that Adams pretty much did what the scheme required of him, which was to be the key factor in stopping the run. I buy that. The problem is that SEA acquired (and are paying) Adams to be a disruptor, not a very very very good strong safety. $14M to Diggs means that $30M of the defense budget goes to two safeties. It’s hard to see the value in that if they don’t blitz Adams more.
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I think they had found the sweet spot with Adams before he got hurt. He was playing in the box more, which is where he needs to be. I would not blitz him like they did in 2020 because, as Pete correctly pointed out, he will just get the hell banged out of him and not finish any season. Play him in the box, vs. the run, covering tight ends and drag routes, and mix him in the blitz when it looks like it will work. And, yeah, hope he starts forcing turnovers, because that is really what he is paid to do …
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