FRISCO – “Fake News.”
Maybe Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones somehow misspoke.
Or maybe someone somehow misunderstood his words.
Or maybe somebody is just making stuff up and stirring stuff up about cornerback Trevon Diggs and his efforts to work his way back from his 2024 season-ending knee surgery.
But however we got here, there are now news stories and online debates asking, “Will Diggs be ready when the team kicks off the season in September?”
The answer?
“Fake news,” a Cowboys source tells CowboysCountry.com … and here’s why.
There has at no point in this process ever been a responsible report from inside The Star suggesting with any realism that Diggs would be healthy by the start of September 2025.
How did we get here?
The Pro Bowl playmaker battled through a calf injury to start the first 10 games of the season … but then his knee flared up, sidelining him for two games. Diggs returned to played a full game in Week 14, but was shut down for surgery shortly after.
That surgery was finally performed in late February as he underwent chondral tissue graft surgery on his left knee.
As we reported at the time, that procedure and the ensuing rehab would sideline him for a period of at least eight months.
That timeline doesn’t allow a return for training camp in Oxnard in July.
In fact – do the math – it suggests a fully healthy return in … November.
Injuries have become a bugaboo for Diggs over the last two years, all after signing his new $20 million per year contract.
He tore his ACL after just two games in 2023, and that required an extensive rehab process that sidelined him until August 2024. … along with whispers from the organization that he didn’t rehab with the proper intensity.
That’s something that team owner Jerry Jones recently said openly.
“He’s more subject to injury. He’s learned that one time,” said Jones. “My point is, I have a lot of hope that his actual rehab and experience from the time before is really helping him out, and I think it has.”
Jones insisted that this time, Diggs is “working hard” with hopes that his rehab process will allow him to come back “quicker” and “sounder.”
“Sounder”? Fine.
“Quicker”? Let’s not go there.
It’s not fair to report or suggest that Diggs is somehow supposed to beat the clock on the eight-month rehab process. Nor is it responsible to suggest he should somehow accelerate everything because there is pressure coming from on third-round pick Shavon Revel Jr. (who by the way has to his own recovery from a knee injury to deal with he is not expected to be ready for the start of training camp in Oxnard.)
The Cowboys need to do this right.
Trevon Diggs needs to do this right.
And anybody with a hand in spreading “fake news”? Let’s all try to do that right, too.
