{"id":14503,"date":"2025-07-22T22:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14503\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:49:08","slug":"diggs-surprised-cowboys-enforced-500k-salary-de-escalator-clause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14503\/","title":{"rendered":"Diggs surprised Cowboys enforced $500K salary de-escalator clause"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Todd ArcherJul 23, 2025, 08:31 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010.<\/p>\n

OXNARD, Calif. — Dallas Cowboys<\/a> cornerback Trevon Diggs<\/a> was aware of the de-escalator clause in his contract that called for his base salary to be reduced by $500,000 if he did not participate in 84% of the offseason program, but it still caught him off guard when the club elected to enforce it.<\/p>\n

“No, I didn’t expect that,” Diggs said. “That kind of hurt my feelings. But it’s OK. Hopefully I make it back in incentives.”<\/p>\n

Diggs is now set to make $8.5 million this year as part of the four-year extension he signed in 2023, and he does not have incentives in his contract at the moment.<\/p>\n

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Diggs chose to do his rehab on his surgically repaired left knee in South Florida instead of with the Cowboys’ rehabilitation staff. He did show for the mandatory minicamp, escaping fines totaling around $100,000 but by then he had missed too much time to avoid the de-escalator.<\/p>\n

“They do a great job here,” said Diggs, who missed 15 games in 2023 because of a torn ACL in his left knee. “I just felt like it was in my best interest to go somewhere to get the full, undivided attention I needed, massages and the whole 9 yards, to better and further my career, to make sure I’m good, ahead of schedule and that I can perform well. Like [when I tore] my ACL, I came back a whole two months earlier because of the work I put in during the offseason, off the field.”<\/p>\n

On Monday, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said, “It would be very detrimental to the team not to abide by the agreement.”<\/p>\n

A number of high-priced players, like Dak Prescott<\/a>, CeeDee Lamb<\/a> and Osa Odighizuwa<\/a> have the clause in their contracts. It’s a device the Cowboys have used for years and Diggs, who will start camp on the physically unable to perform list, is believed to be the first to see a cut in pay for failing to participate.<\/p>\n

Diggs is on the physically unable to perform list and went through rehab during Tuesday’s practice. He did not put a timetable on his return.<\/p>\n

“I know when I get on the field what I’m going to do, so I’m not really worried about that,” Diggs said. “It’s all about getting on the field, staying healthy and once I’m healthy I’m going to perform.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd ArcherJul 23, 2025, 08:31 AM CloseTodd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-14503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}