In five seasons knocking around the NFL, Cowboys defensive lineman Albert Huggins has been with nine different organizations and appeared in games for four of them. He played a career-high 13 games for the Falcons last year and signed on with the Cowboys on August 6 of this year. So, he should know better.
On Wednesday, according to multiple reports, Huggins was removed from the Cowboys’ joint practice in Oxnard, California, with the Rams—the team against whom the Cowboys opened the preseason on Sunday—following an incident where Huggins beat his man, then knocked a Rams intern/coach to the ground with both hands.
Video of the incident shows that after Huggins knocked the intern down, someone from the Rams side shouts, “What the (expletive) are you doing? No, (expletive) that!”
Rams coach Sean McVay interrupted the drill from there and Huggins was led off the field. As Saad Yousef from The Athletic wrote on Twitter/X, “Albert Huggins was led off the field after finishing a pass rush drill by shoving the guy in shorts and t shirt to the ground. Followed it by giving the Rams the middle finger on the way out of the scrum.”
Cowboys Defensive Line Remains an Issue
Of course, the Cowboys want to be physical with other teams during the preseason, and there’s no doubt after seeing the Rams three times this week, familiarity is breeding some contempt. On the previous go-round before the Huggins incident, tackle Osa Odighizuwa got into a tangle with Rams center Alec Lindstrom, which drew a crowd of pushers and shovers before the two were separated.
There was trash talk and there were other minor flare-up between the sides.
“Tensions are high, got to be a little bit smarter than that,” Odighizuwa said, via the Dallas Morning-News.
Of all the units that are feeling some frustration as training camp presses on, the defensive linemen are near the top of the list. They’ve been vulnerable to the key weakness they suffered from last year, which is stopping the run. The Rams have moved the ball easily on the ground against Dallas, according to reports.
The Cowboys have attempted to address the issue by adding Bills lineman Jordan Phillips in a trade on Wednesday. Phillips is entering his 10th season, and while the experience is welcome, the metrics are rough. He graded out at Pro Football Focus with a 35.8 last year, which ranked 129th out of 130 NFL D-linemen. Phillips scored just a 30.0 in run defense.
Trevon Diggs Not Scared
On a happier note, cornerback Trevon Diggs is looking like his old self, and nabbed an interception on Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo on Wednesday. Diggs is working his way back from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 2 last season and, after starting camp on the physically unable to perform list, he is back on the field.
One of the challenges for players coming back from a torn ACL is the mental factor, the ability to play freely and trust the knee not to crumple again. Diggs said that’s not an issue for him, though.
“It felt good getting back and moving around other players, getting adjusted to other bodies flying near me — so it was good. I got a lot of great work in today. … [The mental portion of coming back] is not really a challenge. I trust it now,” he said, via the team’s website.
“It’s just more so getting the repetition and getting back to doing what I do: getting familiar with the routes. That’s pretty much it. As far as mentally being scared or anything, I’m not scared.”
