When the Bengals made him a first-round draft choice two years ago, Dax Hill was considered the second-best safety in his class, behind only Kyle Hamilton. While Hamilton became a First-Team All-Pro in his second year in the league for the division-rival Ravens, Hill struggled to make the same leap, and as Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes, the Michigan product will be moved to cornerback.
After playing just 131 defensive snaps as a rookie in 2022, Hill became a full-time starter at safety last year following Jessie Bates‘ free agency defection to the Falcons. Hill’s surface-level statistics were strong enough, as he recorded 110 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, six tackles for loss, two interceptions and 11 passes defensed. The advanced metrics, however, told a different story, as Pro Football Focus considered Hill the sixth-worst safety out of 95 qualified players.
PFF was especially critical of Hill’s coverage ability and assigned him a poor 43.0 grade for that component of his game. Plus, as Conway observes, Hill also struggled with communication on the back end of Cincinnati’s defense, struggles that are particularly noticeable when they come from a free safety.
Hill did line up as a corner, both in the slot and outside the numbers, at the collegiate level, and he saw some action at both spots last season as well. Per Conway, the Bengals will allow him to compete for snaps at the nickel and on the boundaries in training camp, and the team believes he can still be a key piece of its secondary.
“We’ve seen [cornerback play] from him and we think it’s the best opportunity right now to help our team,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “He’s a superb athlete, he’s got great size, and he did a good amount of coverage at Michigan, playing inside covering slots, played some outside. The versatility is what made him the pick that he was. We’re really excited for his future. He has done a tremendous job embracing this opportunity, and I’m excited to see him go out there and compete.”
Hill will vie for boundary snaps with DJ Turner and for slot time with Mike Hilton (the team also added TCU corner Josh Newton in the fifth round of the draft). Hill’s position change is good news for free agent acquisition Geno Stone, who parlayed a seven-interception 2023 season with Baltimore into a two-year, $15M contract with Cincy. Stone now looks poised to serve as the club’s starting free safety alongside Vonn Bell.
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