Cowboys star cornerback Trevon Diggs is out for the season after tearing his ACL in practice on Thursday.
It's a devastating injury for the league's best defense, but the news hasn't changed the team's overall standing in the market. The Cowboys are still roughly third- or fourth-favorites to win it all across all major American sportsbooks.
And by most conceivable advanced metrics (DVOA, EPA/play), they've been the best team in the NFL so far.
But that was with Diggs in the fold.
Our expert Brandon Anderson lays out what the injury means for the Cowboys' futures market and whether there's value.
Brandon Anderson:
The Cowboys defense had been historically good through two weeks (against Daniel Jones and Zach Wilson, but still) and I've gone all in on Dallas to win the division, the NFC, and the Super Bowl and had them atop my Power Rankings all three weeks so far.
Losing Diggs is a serious blow. Diggs gets a lot of crap because he likes to gamble for interceptions and sometimes leaves the back end of the defense exposed, but that's really the heart of Dan Quinn's defense. This is a unit that's led the league in takeaways two seasons in a row, and Diggs is the top Dallas corner so far by PFF ratings at 80.7, sixth best in the league.
That said, Dallas went out this offseason and got Stephon Gilmore, and that addition will greatly soften the blow of what would have been a crippling injury otherwise. Gilmore is a former DPOY, though he's not the playmaker Diggs is. Still, Gilmore was supposed to be the CB2, so now we're back to the same issue Dallas thought it had fixed. Injuries like this have a trickle-down impact. DaRon Bland and Jourdan Lewis have played well, but it gets harder on everyone when they have to move up a slot.
I had this Dallas defense No. 1 entering the season, and the Cowboys have looked the part. This injury drops Dallas to No. 5, still great but no longer elite and as capable of winning games all on its own like it has so far. I still like Dallas plenty in the near future, but this is the sort of injury that could come back to bite the Cowboys at the worst time, late in the playoffs against an elite QB and offense capable of attacking.
Don't panic, Cowboys fans — you still have Micah Parsons, after all. But Diggs is a real loss, and we should downgrade Dallas accordingly.
I'm certainly not looking to panic sell my futures positions, but I'd be wary about adding any until we see the Cowboys defense against a top (aka not the Cardinals this weekend) opponent.
