Quandre Diggs thinks Lions traded him to control locker room, Darius Slay appears to agree

We’re over two weeks past when the Detroit Lions made the shocking trade of defensive captain Quandre Diggs to the Seattle Seahawks for a swap of a seventh-round pick for a fifth-round pick, but many are still left scratching their heads about the move.

However, Diggs provided a little clarity about his point of view in a phone interview with the Detroit Free Press this week.

According to Diggs, he believes he was traded in an effort to silence him and control the locker room.

“I think it was more of just a control thing,” Diggs told the Free Press. “Them wanting to control the locker room. Control the locker room, control voices in the locker room.”

Diggs was voted team captain for the first time this year, just a calendar year after this coaching staff and front office had decided his play was worthy of a contract extension. By Diggs’ admission, he took the role of captain seriously and was vocally present about issues facing the team.

“I’m a vocal guy, so when you’re vocal and when you’re competitive, I’m a competitive guy,” Diggs said. “I’m competitive as shit. I hate losing. I go and I put my body on the line every week doing hella treatment, doing all these other things and at the end of the day it didn’t work out.”

Diggs told the Free Press that there were just disagreements in Detroit on the way things should be done, and that the details will eventually come out, but at this point he has no ill will against Detroit. He says he’s simply happy where he’s at in Seattle, where he can be himself.

“At the end of the day, I’m at a new organization that respects the players, they respect your personality and the people that you are,” Diggs said. “I’m just happy about my situation. Those guys, they do what they do, (what) they feel like what’s best for the organization. I don’t fault them, but at the end of the day, I’m good where I’m at.”

This is obviously a bad look for the Lions, but it may not be the end of their personality problems. Star cornerback Darius Slay, who was very vocal about being hurt by the trade of Diggs, seems to concur with the reasoning behind the trade. The following Tweet from Dave Birkett was retweeted by Slay:

Slay previously stated that he wouldn’t care if he was traded from the Lions (though it’s important to note that he did not request a trade). Detroit opted to keep him at the trade deadline despite hearing multiple offers from teams. With only one year remaining on his deal after 2019, we’ll see what the Lions decide to do with Slay this offseason.