RENTON, Wash. — His right foot looked as if it had been bludgeoned by a hammer — but it's unlikely Quandre Diggs' sobs were due to the pain. The Seahawks safety was less than 10 minutes from completing the final season of his contract before floating into free agency, where he was set to be a money magnet based on his play.
But as his eyes welled up after suffering a dislocated ankle and a broken right fibula in the final quarter of the final game last January, Diggs had to think his future was murky — that he might never return to the level that has netted him a Pro Bowl nod in each of the past three seasons. One year later, you could argue that he is indeed not the same — that he's better than he's ever been.
When Diggs, 29, intercepted Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield's pass in overtime Sunday, it likely saved the Seahawks' season. The turnover led to a game-winning field-goal drive that eventually sent Seattle to the playoffs, after the Packers' loss that night. It was a crowning moment for the safety who has gone from sixth-round draft pick to Pro Bowler to potential first-time All-Pro (former teammate Dan Orlovsky tweeted that he voted for Diggs). And it was one that completed the transformation of Diggs' season from shaky to successful.
Some thought Diggs making the Pro Bowl — for which the rosters are announced three weeks before the regular season's conclusion — might have been based more on reputation than performance. There were some rough spots this season; most notably in the form of missed tackles and dropped interceptions.
But then the numbers started to surge. There were the two picks Quandre had in the Seahawks' overtime loss to the Raiders in Week 12. There was the pick in the win over the Jets in Seattle's penultimate regular-season contest, when Diggs became the only active player to record at least three interceptions in six consecutive seasons. And then, of course, there was the pick in overtime Sunday, which seemed to instantly justify the three-year, $39 million contract he signed in the offseason.
Some might attribute the uptick in numbers to the law of averages — a player of Quandre's caliber was eventually going to stuff the stat sheet, right? Maybe. Or perhaps after enduring one of the most ghastly injuries of the 2021 NFL season, his body is finally healed.
"I'm still rounding into form in Week 21, 22 of the season," Diggs said Wednesday, which marked the anniversary of his surgery. "I knew it was going to be a long recovery, and you never want to say, 'Oh, this year I might not be myself, but I'm going to still be out there.' But that's the reality of when you have a gruesome injury like me. It's kind of like, you're out there and you're doing those things, but you're never truly yourself until you have a full year to get over those things."
Funny how Diggs might be playing his best football after making the Pro Bowl. Analytics site Pro Football Focus has graded him as the top safety in the league the past three weeks. His season-high grade of 91.1 Sunday landed him on PFF's most recent Team of the Week, as his only target came on that interception.
And don't think Diggs isn't going to let anyone within earshot talk about what he can do with those eight fingers and two thumbs of his. Said Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith on Wednesday: "He's got hands like a wideout. I'm pretty sure he says that all the time. He's in the locker room telling guys he's got better hands than them."
Is that true, Quandre?
"For a while I couldn't say that anymore. For a while I didn't have any interceptions and I had dropped like three in a row, and then I dropped a big one against the 49ers. I was kind of questioning my hands a little bit," Diggs said. "A funny, funny story is I remember my rookie year [in Detroit] I used to go up to [Hall of Fame receiver] Calvin Johnson and be like, 'These hands are second to none,' and he would look at me and just laugh, 'Like you don't even have any interceptions; what are you talking about?' But that's always the confidence that I kind of had in my hands and my catching ability."
Now, with the Seahawks set to meet the 49ers in the first round of the playoffs Saturday, Diggs is preparing for just the second postseason game of his eight-year career. The odds are against his team, but after that injury, the odds were against him, too.
If the Seahawks channel their inner Quandre, they might surprise a lot of people.
