FRISCO, Texas – The amount of changes for Trevon Diggs are too many to really count.
His first NFL game a year ago was played without fans in a brand-new, but eerily quiet SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This year, he'll play in front of raucous Tampa Bay crowd that will celebrate the team's Super Bowl triumph last season.
A year ago, he was facing Jared Goff, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. Now, it's Tom Brady, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin.
He had just switched jerseys before last year from 31 to 27. Now, he's wearing No. 7, his college number at Alabama.
But the biggest change of all for Diggs from 365 days ago to now, has to be his confidence and experience.
He was basically thrown into the fire as a rookie last year, forced into the starting lineup because of injuries. And now, Diggs enters his second season as the top cornerback on the roster, the player most likely to face the opposing No. 1 receivers each week.
In fact, when asked by a reporter on Monday if he plans on traveling with a Tampa Bay receiver – most likely Evans – Diggs stopped short of answering and just smirked at the question, remembering that he's not supposed to be giving away another game plan.
Yes, there's another example of Diggs showing some wisdom in his second year.
While he's more confident this time around, Diggs isn't too sure of himself to think he can't get even better.
"I feel like I've improved – but there's always room for improvement," Diggs said. "I try to work on my game every single game – just try to go to practice and get better at something. I feel like the game has started to slow down for me."
And that was evident towards the end of last season. After getting picked on quite a bit early in the year, Diggs started to find a groove by mid-season. He picked off two passes against the Eagles in Week 8 and then got another pick against Philly in Week 16.
This year, Diggs spent most of training camp going up against CeeDee Lamb, who seemed to make a highlight catch every day.
"Going up against him has made me a better player," Diggs said after camp. "Just the way he competes for every ball on every rep. You know he's going to make a play on it, so I think it's help me compete and fight (for the ball)."
Of course, Diggs has spent his entire life chasing an eventual NFL receiver in his older brother, Stefon, who led the league in catches last year with 127 for Buffalo.
While that was undoubtedly a breakthrough season for his brother, Trevon Diggs is looking at making a similar splash here when the season begins this week.
Even if he's dealing with a few changes or three.
