Quandre Diggs excited for first return to Detroit, ‘loves’ what Lions are doing

On Sunday, Seattle Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs will return to Ford Field for the first time since his former team, the Detroit Lions, traded him in the middle of the 2019 season.

“It’s always a special place for me, even watching on film,” Diggs said of Detroit in his Wednesday press conference this week. “Just seeing the turf, the fans, and the stadium. It brings back memories, of course. Detroit is what made me into who I am now, so (I’m) forever grateful for my opportunity. It’ll be great to see some good friends.”

Despite being one of the team’s best players and biggest leaders, the Lions traded away Diggs because he did not fit the culture then head coach Matt Patricia wanted in Detroit. Diggs, tired of rehashing the story, was not interested in bringing that up. In fact, he avoided using Patricia’s name during his entire 19-minute media session.

“I’m not going to keep going down this same road,” Diggs said. “We’ve talked about it enough about why the situation happened with me. If you don’t know, there’s stories, there’s all types of stuff out there. You guys can dive in and dig in. You guys have been around me long enough. You know I’m a pretty outspoken guy and some people can’t take that.”

Unfortunately, one of the friends Diggs was likely looking forward to seeing on the field was former teammate—and position mate—Tracy Walker, but Walker suffered a torn Achilles in last week’s game against the Vikings, ending his 2022 season. Diggs interrupted his own answer to a question to send some love Walker’s way.

“Just want to say, put my prayers up for Tracy Walker,” Diggs said. “He tore his Achilles on Sunday. That’s my guy. It sucks to see. He’s a great player. Hate to not see him out there, because knowing him, the energy, the trash talk between me and him would’ve been cool, even though he would’ve been on the sideline, but I just know him. Just wishing him well.”

While Diggs has been busy building up his game and carving out a fantastic Pro Bowl career of his in Seattle, he’s kept an eye on Detroit throughout it all, including watching some of this year’s HBO documentary series “Hard Knocks,” which covered the Lions’ training camp experience this year.

“Iit was the best (season of ‘Hard Knocks’) to me,” Digg said. “It was the best one to me in a long time. Those guys are working.

“It’s cool seeing former NFL players as coaches, you know what I mean? When I look over there and I freakin’ see Antwaan Randle El and Duce Staley, Mark Brunell and Kelvin Sheppard and Aaron Glenn, and you like, ‘Sheesh, these guys I grew up watching.’ To see them as coaches, it’s super dope, and I think they brought it to life. Dan Campbell, he brings the energy every day. That’s who he is. I think it was super dope, and shoutout to my dog Shep. That’s my former teammate and he’s a linebacker coach now. It’s crazy when I go over there and see him and he’s the linebackers coach. We was just teammates four years ago, five years ago, something like that. I think ‘Hard Knocks’ was dope, though.”

Diggs said he feels no ill-will towards the Lions organization. He’ll always appreciate them taking a chance on a sixth-round pick, loved his days under Jim Caldwell, and is excited to see some of the team employees—trainers, equipment staff—that helped launch his NFL career.

As for the current team, Diggs is optimistic about the Lions and their current trajectory.

“Dan Campbell is in and I love what they’re doing. It’s cool to see those guys back on the right track.”

You can watch Diggs’ entire media session here. I miss that guy.