The Cincinnati Bengals clearly went into this offseason prioritizing the safety position after they signed two starting-caliber safeties in the first week of free agency. Former Baltimore Ravens free safety Geno Stone finished second in the NFL last season with seven interceptions and strong safety Vonn Bell was renowned for his leadership during his first stint in the Queen City. It is safe to say that the position has been completely overhauled from where the team was just a few weeks ago.
Cincinnati Bengals Safety Follows Alarming Trend
While both of those players are solid role players, they will likely displace the two players whose roles they are filling. Those players are strong safety Jordan Battle who stepped up into the role halfway through last season and was actually one of the better safeties statistically in the NFL last season and Dax Hill, who was the team’s first-round pick in 2022.
Hill has had a tough road since he entered the NFL with the 31st overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He was an elite playmaker at the University of Michigan but spent his entire rookie season on the bench learning from All-Pro free safety Jessie Bates III. After Bates left the team last offseason, Hill finally had his moment in the sun and unfortunately squandered his big break. Hill struggled last season and it looks like the team might already be going in another direction.
If this really does signal the end of Hill’s tenure as the starting safety in Cincinnati, his demise will follow the trend of failed first-round selections in the NFL Draft on the defensive side of the ball. Cincinnati doesn’t select many defenders in the first round but when they do, they typically have been lucky to get role players. Most of the defensive players to play for Cincinnati bomb out of the NFL within a few seasons after leaving the team including 2016 first-round pick William Jackson, 2014 first-round pick Darqueze Dennard, and 2012 first-round pick Dre Kirkpatrick.
At the very best, these players can be considered role players and were essentially driven out of Cincinnati by unhappy fans. The last defensive player selected in the first round who had a solid career was 2006 first-round pick Jonathan Joseph. Joseph would be solid for Cincinnati but ended up an All-Pro corner once he left the team for the Houston Texans in 2010. Past Joseph, you have to go a long way to find a defender who made much of an impact at all on the defense.
If everything ends up the way it looks, Hill will just be another failed first-round pick for Cincinnati that fulfills an alarming prophecy that should give pause to any rookie selected by the franchise.
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