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Diggs is the starting free safety for the NFC. Do I need to repeat that? They will likely cut him after June 1, and there is not better one in the whole NFC? Who chooses these things?

On the other hand, congrats to Geno , Woolen, and Myers. Well deserved. I wouldn't trade our punter, either.

I don't think we're cutting Diggs. He came back from a serious injury and has played most of the games for the 17th ranked passing defense starting rooks with not much of a pass rush.

Not sure why he made the Pro Bowl, but I don't know safeties in the NFC.

Diggs has been bad . Not just the huge drop last game . He’s tentative . Getting overpowered . He’s missed key tackles on so many explosive plays I’ve lost count . Love diggsy as Pete calls him . But he’s been bad .
If he was playing like he did before he was hurt it would be a different defense . Congrats on pro bowl I guess . Where’s the beef ?

I could care less about the Pro Bowl. The game itself is a joke. Inclusions and omissions like this one with Diggs are difficult to understand. I pay more attention to PFF's evaluation of a player than I do how many Pro Bowls they were selected to.

Ironically, Diggs didn't even make it into the top 25 of PFF's safety rankings going into Week 15, but his teammate, Ryan Neal, who a lot of us have been raving about, was ranked 8th:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-safety-ran ... james-2022

RiverDog wrote:I could care less about the Pro Bowl. The game itself is a joke. Inclusions and omissions like this one with Diggs are difficult to understand. I pay more attention to PFF's evaluation of a player than I do how many Pro Bowls they were selected to.

Ironically, Diggs didn't even make it into the top 25 of PFF's safety rankings going into Week 15, but his teammate, Ryan Neal, who a lot of us have been raving about, was ranked 8th:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-safety-ran ... james-2022

Yeah Diggs has been bad this year after probably being our defensive MVP last year. It will be interesting to see what happens with him as he has a huge cap hit next year. It's crazy that we have 2 safties that will be making 18 mil, but Neal is our best safety and he's going to be stuck behind Adams who has too much dead money to be cut next year. We either cut Diggs and as a post June 1 cut and take on two years of big dead money and still have Neal behind Adams , cut Adam's post June 1 and have 2 years of 10+ million in dead money but at least Neal can start, or do t cut anybody and Beal is stuck on the bench. They had talked about using 3 safties before Adam's was hurt so maybe that is the direction they go? It will be interesting.

RiverDog wrote:I could care less about the Pro Bowl. The game itself is a joke. Inclusions and omissions like this one with Diggs are difficult to understand. I pay more attention to PFF's evaluation of a player than I do how many Pro Bowls they were selected to.

Ironically, Diggs didn't even make it into the top 25 of PFF's safety rankings going into Week 15, but his teammate, Ryan Neal, who a lot of us have been raving about, was ranked 8th:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-safety-ran ... james-2022

mykc14 wrote:Yeah Diggs has been bad this year after probably being our defensive MVP last year. It will be interesting to see what happens with him as he has a huge cap hit next year. It's crazy that we have 2 safties that will be making 18 mil, but Neal is our best safety and he's going to be stuck behind Adams who has too much dead money to be cut next year. We either cut Diggs and as a post June 1 cut and take on two years of big dead money and still have Neal behind Adams , cut Adam's post June 1 and have 2 years of 10+ million in dead money but at least Neal can start, or do t cut anybody and Beal is stuck on the bench. They had talked about using 3 safties before Adam's was hurt so maybe that is the direction they go? It will be interesting.

If someone were to come up with an All Pro team composed of the most overpaid and underperforming players, we'd have the two safety positions locked down.

No way am I sticking Neal on the bench. He's one the few bright spots on an otherwise horrible defense, and he's been getting better as the season has wore on.

Diggs is coming off a serious injury. The pass rush is terrible. Diggs is a free safety who has had to help in run support way more than he should have to because of our lousy D-line and backers. Not sure how you call Diggs bad when he is having to do things not normally asked of a free safety after returning from a serious injury, while his far higher paid partner is out for the season again.

It could be that coaches with a better knowledge of the game see Diggs doing what he is supposed to do as a free safety, while trying to help a seriously struggling run defense that a free safety shouldn't being doing very often because our vastly overpaid strong safety can't stay on the field.

I would not be that interested in getting rid of Diggs. He's a good free safety having to do too much one year back from a serious injury who actually toughed out the entire season. I'd like to see Diggs when he can go back to focusing on pass defense with a healthier strong safety next to him and a better front seven with a pass rush.

Aseahawkfan wrote:Diggs is coming off a serious injury. The pass rush is terrible. Diggs is a free safety who has had to help in run support way more than he should have to because of our lousy D-line and backers. Not sure how you call Diggs bad when he is having to do things not normally asked of a free safety after returning from a serious injury, while his far higher paid partner is out for the season again.

Injuries don't explain missing tackles, being out of position, and having footballs bounce off his face mask. Again, I point to the PFF rankings where he doesn't even show up on their radar. There's no doubt that he's not playing at a Pro Bowl level.

Aseahawkfan wrote:It could be that coaches with a better knowledge of the game see Diggs doing what he is supposed to do as a free safety, while trying to help a seriously struggling run defense that a free safety shouldn't being doing very often because our vastly overpaid strong safety can't stay on the field.

I would not be that interested in getting rid of Diggs. He's a good free safety having to do too much one year back from a serious injury who actually toughed out the entire season. I'd like to see Diggs when he can go back to focusing on pass defense with a healthier strong safety next to him and a better front seven with a pass rush.

Could be. I don't recall Diggs looking like this last season and he's not the root cause of our defensive struggles. But if given a choice between keeping either Diggs or Adams, I'd keep Diggs. Adams is damaged goods, a one trick pony.

RiverDog wrote:Injuries don't explain missing tackles, being out of position, and having footballs bounce off his face mask. Again, I point to the PFF rankings where he doesn't even show up on their radar. There's no doubt that he's not playing at a Pro Bowl level.

It does to me. We've seen plenty of guys look worse after injuries. Missed tackles by a free safety being forced into run support is to be expected as far as I see it. I hated when Earl had to support the run too often. Free safeties being used in run defense is asking for more injuries. They are too small for run support. RBs like Lynch used to eat free safeties for breakfast if they were in his way if he broke to the third level.

I say Diggs will look a whole lot better when we get backers and D-line in front of him that do their damn job. The players not doing their job in this defense are the front seven. We shouldn't be worried about Diggs tackle total because he should mostly be playing pass defense and in Pete's defense, deep pass defense. I don't see him giving up a lot of deep balls which is his job to stop like the LBs and D-lineman are suppose to keep the safeties and CBs clean from run defense.

Could be. I don't recall Diggs looking like this last season and he's not the root cause of our defensive struggles. But if given a choice between keeping either Diggs or Adams, I'd keep Diggs. Adams is damaged goods, a one trick pony.

Diggs didn't look like this last season. He's coming off a serious injury. So far he's toughed out the entire year through all this crap defensive play. It's real odd to me that some are willing to write off a guy that has played well for us for years prior to this who seems to have really come back from a serious injury to stay on the field through the good and the bad and is part of a pass defense that is at least middle of the pack with no pass rush to help them much.

If Diggs made the pro bowl, then someone must see the guy doing what he's supposed to do in pass defense. As far as tackling goes, teams are running on us so much that Diggs is being asked to support in run defense way more than you want or should need as a free safety. It's what we saw happen with Earl when the D-line and front seven started sucking and Earl had to come in and start playing the run more. He ended up getting hurt more often because he's too small for run defense.

Aseahawkfan wrote:If Diggs made the pro bowl, then someone must see the guy doing what he's supposed to do in pass defense.

Players are selected by the vote of players, coaches, and fans, plus fans can vote as many times as they like. It's not a very objective process. Being that he's a 3 time Pro Bowler, Diggs has name recognition, which is likely what got him in. There's no other explanation.

Player selections will be decided by the consensus votes of fans, players, and coaches, with each group's vote calculated as one-third. The NFL is the only league that merges voting by fans, coaches, and players to choose its Pro Bowl teams.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-ho ... owl-starts

RiverDog wrote:Players are selected by the vote of players, coaches, and fans, plus fans can vote as many times as they like. It's not a very objective process. Being that he's a 3 time Pro Bowler, Diggs has name recognition, which is likely what got him in. There's no other explanation.

Player selections will be decided by the consensus votes of fans, players, and coaches, with each group's vote calculated as one-third. The NFL is the only league that merges voting by fans, coaches, and players to choose its Pro Bowl teams.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-ho ... owl-starts

If the coaches voted for him, then there might be other reasons.

I don't see Diggs the same as some of you. I think he's doing his job. We're not getting torched in the passing game. He's working with a couple of young rooks and seems to be doing his job coordinating and positioning the secondary. We may not see that because our defense is getting gouged by the run. For all we know Diggs is doing a great job, but due to teams focusing on running against us we wouldn't even know.

A free safety's job is not run support. In Pete's defense, the free safety is there to stop deep balls and support the pass defense. Given he's the most veteran guy on the field, he may be doing a bang up job at free safety, but missing tackles in the run and having a few of his missed interceptions used as some indication of poor performance when they had no real effect. Even to miss interceptions he's obviously in position to get them.

I know I don't have any interest in cutting Diggs and I don't see him as close to the problem in this defense. In fact, I see him as a key veteran component of the defense that will shine brighter once he can focus on being a good free safety rather than trying to help the run defense because we have a front seven who are not doing their job.

Aseahawkfan wrote:If the coaches voted for him, then there might be other reasons.

Coaches aren't very objective sources, either. They're too consumed studying their next opponent's players to worry about ranking players from all 32 teams for the purpose of a Pro Bowl vote. They're just as subject to the same influences that fans are. IMO the most accurate method would be a select group of sportswriters.

Aseahawkfan wrote:I don't see Diggs the same as some of you. I think he's doing his job. We're not getting torched in the passing game. He's working with a couple of young rooks and seems to be doing his job coordinating and positioning the secondary. We may not see that because our defense is getting gouged by the run. For all we know Diggs is doing a great job, but due to teams focusing on running against us we wouldn't even know.

A free safety's job is not run support. In Pete's defense, the free safety is there to stop deep balls and support the pass defense. Given he's the most veteran guy on the field, he may be doing a bang up job at free safety, but missing tackles in the run and having a few of his missed interceptions used as some indication of poor performance when they had no real effect. Even to miss interceptions he's obviously in position to get them.

I know I don't have any interest in cutting Diggs and I don't see him as close to the problem in this defense. In fact, I see him as a key veteran component of the defense that will shine brighter once he can focus on being a good free safety rather than trying to help the run defense because we have a front seven who are not doing their job.

Once again, I'm not saying that we should cut Diggs, nor am I saying that he's a major cause of our problems. But for whatever reason, whether it be injuries, the play of his teammates, or simply bad luck, it's undeniable that he's not having a great season worthy of a Pro Bowl selection. That's all I'm saying.

Besides, if ObS says Diggs is having a bad season, he's having a bad season.

ObS woke up in the middle of the night, downed a few shots of Jack Daniels, and rage posted against Diggs because of his overall disgust with the defense.

And I'm kidding. But that would be funny.

Old but Slow wrote:Diggs is the starting free safety for the NFC. Do I need to repeat that? They will likely cut him after June 1, and there is not better one in the whole NFC? Who chooses these things?

On the other hand, congrats to Geno , Woolen, and Myers. Well deserved. I wouldn't trade our punter, either.

I thought this year Diggs missed a lot of tackles and taken poor angles along with not being the ball hawk we have seen in previous years. But the Pro Bowl can sometimes be a popularity contest and some players get in
on reputation as much as performance.

Apparently Geno gets a $500,000 bonus for making the Pro Bowl, so good for him.
Woollen has been as big a surprise as Geno and Meyers has quietly had a very good year, too.

Strictly single malts.

Martini
Diggs has killed us in critical game changing moments this year . I know he was hurt . But he’s getting trucked in the run game and missing critical tackles . Bouncing a ball he absolutely had to squeeze off his chest was his season in a microcosm . I wish him well , loved him till this year but I wondered what his recovery would look like . Not complete and it’s hurt the defense .

Hawktawk wrote:Diggs has killed us in critical game changing moments this year . I know he was hurt . But he’s getting trucked in the run game and missing critical tackles . Bouncing a ball he absolutely had to squeeze off his chest was his season in a microcosm . I wish him well , loved him till this year but I wondered what his recovery would look like . Not complete and it’s hurt the defense .

Diggs just signed a contract extension last spring. Could that have anything to do with his uncharacteristic poor performance this season?

Part of my criticism of Diggs is that contract. We have over $30m a year invested in safeties. Would you compare Adams/Diggs to Metcalf/Lockett? About the same money. Even if Adams was healthy, it would be too much. My preference would be to cut both Adams and Diggs after June 1 next Summer, eat the dead money, and go with Neal and either Blount or a rookie (J L Skinner?). The dead money would be substantial, but it could give more freedom to better align the defense.

Old but Slow wrote:Part of my criticism of Diggs is that contract. We have over $30m a year invested in safeties. Would you compare Adams/Diggs to Metcalf/Lockett? About the same money. Even if Adams was healthy, it would be too much. My preference would be to cut both Adams and Diggs after June 1 next Summer, eat the dead money, and go with Neal and either Blount or a rookie (J L Skinner?). The dead money would be substantial, but it could give more freedom to better align the defense.

Agreed. Spending that kind of money on safeties is obscene. Besides, Neal is not only a cheaper option, but a better on-the-field option as well.

Diggs doesn’t strike me as a guy who got paid and quit playing . One concern he voiced was not wanting to go to a total rebuild team “ Pete says it’s not a rebuild and I have to believe it . “ he’s just tentative and perhaps not fully recovered . In Munich where our tear went sideways I remember him running on eggshells , seemingly more worried about getting hurt then playing . He was a huge part of the defensive lapses in the game. Run over , stiff armed in the face in the run game . A guy whose foot was on backwards shouldn’t have to play NFL ball on jello at 6:30 AM.
But it’s cool with some hawks fans . Suck it up . Overcome .

We need safeties . Kam and Et were the most important secondary pieces in the LOB . I think if Adams had been healthy he would have shut some mouths . But he was a sucker bet to stay healthy . If we had my generational talent guy Penny we would be running the ball but same deal . Some of the greatest athletes ever can’t catch a break . Now Neal is out tomorrow . We’re Fd. Geno better earn his new deal or we’re getting smoked .