Dallas Cowboys: 5 Cut candidates fighting for a spot at training camp

1. Trysten Hill, Defensive Tackle

There have been many draft blunders in recent years from the Dallas Cowboys. The most egregious was clearly when they took Taco Charlton in 2017 over T.J. Watt which really should have been enough for someone to force the Jones family to sell the team.

If we couldn’t go that far, it should have made the team realize that having the defensive coordinator in the war room was a mistake. But they didn’t see this as an issue and then allowed Rod Marinelli back in the room in 2019 — and even though they didn’t trust him to make the play calls, they allowed him to influence their decision when making their first pick that happened to come at No. 58 overall.

Much like when all of Cowboys nation was screaming for Watt in 2017, they were all on the Juan Thornhill or Taylor Rapp bandwagon considering how desperately Dallas needed a safety. But the Jones family continued to act as if the position didn’t matter (and they still do but can’t understand why their defense always has more holes than swiss cheese in the passing game) as they took UCF defensive tackle Trysten Hill.

The problem here wasn’t talent as Hill has that. The problem is, he had yet to prove he can apply that talent. In fact, Hill was even on the bench for his final collegiate season as coaches were tired of his attitude. But don’t worry Dallas fans, ‘ol Rod was going to “coach him up” and convinced everyone there would be no problem. Then he proceeded to put Hill in his dog house when there was a problem.

So far in two seasons, Hill has appeared in 12 games and has 16 tackles with zero sacks and only two tackles for a loss. He also spent the final 11 games in 2020 after tearing his ACL — although this happened as he was trying to avoid a roughing the passer penalty due to the asinine “weight on the passer” rule.

Hill was showing improvement in 2020 before the injury but now the Cowboys’ defensive line has more talent for him to try and beat out. It won’t be easy for him to win a spot at all, as Hill could find himself on the outside looking in.