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On Friday night the Dallas Cowboys locked down the newest 3-technique for the heart of Rod Marinelli’s defense, UCF’s Trysten Hill.
Dallas chose Hill with their first pick of the 2019 Draft, the 58th overall selection. Watching as the draft unfolded was quite the exercise for Cowboys fans as the board basically fell in the most beautiful way imaginable. There were tons of safety options and the defensive lineman that the Cowboys liked. It was a situation almost designed for them.
Due to how fortuitous things went for Dallas there were many who felt that they should have traded back. With all these options staring them in the face why not pick up a seventh pick in the draft? More picks is never a bad thing and if you’re still able to get one of your guys, why not?
Perhaps the answer is that “one of your guys” is not the same as “the guy” because the Cowboys wound up choosing Hill over not just the idea of trading back but another specific player, Virginia safety Juan Thornhill. Safety remains a part of the team that could use some work, but Hill just outweighed every other option. From ESPN’s Todd Archer:
The Cowboys were zeroed in on Trysten Hill and Juan Thornhill with the 58th pick, but opted for Hill because of the importance of the under tackle in Rod Marinelli’s scheme. Stephen Jones said Marinelli calls that the most important position in their 4-3 scheme. The Cowboys received calls from teams to trade down but opted to take Hill and they had little debate when they were on the clock on the player to choose.
This will obviously make watching Thornhill’s career with the Kansas City Chiefs very interesting for the foreseeable future. While no one is denying that Thornhill is a fine prospect the needs for the Cowboys apparently demanded someone like Hill in the here and now.