Quandre Diggs: New Lions deal ‘doesn’t matter … I’m always going to have that chip on my shoulder’

After signing a contract extension with the Detroit Lions that makes him one of the highest-paid safeties in the NFL, Quandre Diggs wanted to make one thing clear.

He will not be seeing himself any differently than he did before signing the three-year deal reportedly worth up to $20.4 million.

‘I want to continue to prove my worth to them’

“No matter what, new deal, another three years, it doesn’t matter to me, I’m always going to have that chip on my shoulder,” Diggs told Bruce Murray and Brady Quinn on the SiriusXM Blitz. “I was a sixth-round pick, pick (No.) 200. I want to continue to prove my worth to them and just go out and play ball each and every week.”

That isn’t to say Diggs lacks appreciation for what the Lions did for him.

‘You always want to respect the team that drafted you’

“It means a lot, it definitely means a lot for them to come out and get me under contract for the next three years,” he said. “To be a part of this organization and be a part of something that means a lot to me, this team that drafted me. You always want to respect the team that drafted you, so that means a lot to me, that Coach (Matt) Patricia and (General Manager) Bob Quinn, the Ford family, the rest of the organization believes in me. Thirty-two teams passed on me, but the Detroit Lions picked me in the sixth round and I never take that for granted.”

Not that Patricia will allow that to happen with any of his players. Diggs is impressed with the no-nonsense tone the rookie coach has set for the season.

‘All (coach Matt Patricia) knows is winning, so that’s what we expects’

“The difference (between Patricia and his predecessor, Jim Caldwell) is he’s a defensive coach, so of course he’s hands-on with the defense,” Diggs said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to think this is a guy that’s been with New England for his whole career. So all he knows his winning, so that’s what he expects. He expects to come in every day and win the day and that’s the most important thing to him is to win a football game. He’s done it under Bill Belichick, one of the best coaches to ever coach in the game so he’s learned so much.”