The Cowboys attempted to find a taker for defensive tackle Trysten Hill. After no trade transpired, Dallas is moving on. The Cowboys cut Hill shortly after the deadline, Jon Machota of The Athletic tweets.
While this will end Hill’s underwhelming tenure with the Cowboys, they had been using the former second-round pick as a rotational player this season. From that end, it marks an interesting decision to move on.
A roster crunch created a decision for the Cowboys. The team designated defensive end Tarell Basham for return Oct. 20. The veteran edge player must be activated by next week or he misses the rest of the season. The Cowboys currently roster 11 defensive linemen, without Basham in the equation, and decided they no longer had room for Hill.
Johnathan Hankins came over from the Raiders via trade, bumping Hill from a rotation that includes Dan Quinn-era investments Osa Odighizuwa and Quinton Bohanna, along with 2020 draftee Neville Gallimore. Hill resided as the Cowboys’ longest-tenured defensive tackle, but he the team selected him during Rod Marinelli‘s run as defensive coordinator.
Dallas made Hill a healthy scratch for its Week 8 game against the Bears, marking a change from the Central Florida product’s previous role. Hill, 24, had played between 29-38% of Dallas’ defensive snaps in all but one of the team’s first seven games. But the franchise decided years ago Hill was not a starter. His five starts all came during the 2020 season.
This is not surprising…which is why they didn’t get any trade offers. Hill also was no “must have” enough for some to pay for first dibs on his acquisition. Any player that a team signs with a “why not, we’ll give him a shot” perspective is not likely one that will net draft compensation for.
The Cowboys, all jokes aside, have done a decent job getting production out of players with work ethic concerns in the past (I mean this in a complimentary way), but Hill was not one of them. It’s good to be able to have a system in place to help those kinds of players be productive, but not everyone is going to step up and turn into a reliable NFL player. Perhaps Hill will benefit from a change in scenery or in perspective.