FRISCO, Texas 鈥 Of all the players on the Cowboys' roster, there may not have been anyone close to Micah Parsons than cornerback Trevon Diggs.
On the day of Parsons' trade, Diggs took to social media and posted an emoji of a broken heart on X. Clearly, he didn't want one of his best friends gone.
"I think everybody was surprised," Diggs said of the trade. "I was really surprised, I really thought it was going to get done so we could just stay a family. Just him being here all his years, but unfortunately that's not what God had for him."
Since the move on Thursday, Diggs and Parsons have been in touch, and Parsons even showed Diggs some of his new facilities.
"He likes it a lot," Diggs said. "He's happy, so I'm happy for him and his family."
From Diggs' perspective, the decision that the Cowboys made to ultimately move on from Parsons seemed to be a mixture of business, and personal differences.
"It's definitely a business, but people always say never make it personal," Diggs said. "But when you go out there and lay your life on the line, you're practicing hard, you're in the game, you're risking your body. It becomes personal because you care about it, you care about the game so much you want to win. It is a business at the end of the day, but it is also personal."
In terms of his fit in the locker rooms, Diggs felt like Parsons was well received for the most part. That said, he mentioned some teammate who are no longer around may have felt differently because of Parsons' quick impact on the field.
"I feel like there were some former players who were here, who aren't here anymore, it's a lot of, I would say, hate, jealousy, envy towards him because of who he is and the production he does on the field," Diggs said.
"Imagine if you come in here and you're taking somebody's shine or taking somebody's spot, they're not going to like that, they're going to feel a type of way. Me personally, I never got no bad anything from him, ever."
If anything, Diggs got the opposite of that from Parsons. The two got especially tight when Diggs was rehabbing his injuries, with Parsons coming to train with him and check up on him to make sure he was progressing towards playing at a high level when healthy.
"He did his due diligence, now I'm taking the initiative and doing everything myself," Diggs said. "I feel like he pushed me to create that habit of coming in here early, taking care of my body, getting the extra help, getting the extra reps and things that I need. So now, I can do it on my own. We're still going to keep in contact, we're still going to be there for each other."
The next time they'll see each other is September 28, when the Packers go on the road to play the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Diggs still hasn't wrapped his mind around Parsons being on the opposite sideline.
"I don't know yet, it's going to be a little weird," Diggs said. "I know he's going to give me his jersey."
On his sideline, Diggs gets to spend a few more years playing next to DaRon Bland, who signed a four-year extension on Sunday. He's already got high goals for the two of them to reach together.
"I'm happy for him, he deserved it, he earned it," Diggs said of Bland's extension. "Both of us go out there, make plays and see if we can both go out there and become two All-Pro corners together. That would be my next step and my challenge to him, and his challenge to me as well. So that's what's next."
For the second straight day, Diggs was a participant in the media's viewing of practice. What's the likelihood that he'll be on the field Thursday night to start the climb towards that goal with Bland?
"I did everything today," Diggs said. "I did a lot of scout team reps too, I was getting both. I'm getting more conditioning, I feel good, so Thursday may be looking good鈥"
"Like, 75, 80 [percent chance]."
Of course, the final say will come down to the Cowboys' training staff after watching Diggs practice this week. The good news is Diggs was listed as a full participant in Monday's injury report, along with Tyler Guyton (knee) and Brevyn Spann-Ford (ankle).
Diggs hasn't always taken reps with the scout team, but is going to do it more this year so that he has more chances to line up against guys like George Pickens, who he feels has a chance to take the Cowboys offense to the next level in 2025.
"I like going on scout team because then I can get those reps [against] those guys," Diggs said. "It's been really good, [Pickens'] going to be a great addition to the Dallas offense and they're going to make a lot of plays."
