What grade would you give Trysten Hill’s Dallas Cowboys debut?

There were a lot of firsts happening at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.

Robert Quinn played his first game as a defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys (coincidentally against his old team). Taco Charlton played his first game as a defensive end for the Miami Dolphins (coincidentally against his old team). The Cowboys as a whole played their first game with Amari Cooper that didn’t also featured Michael Gallup. Firsts were everywhere.

Another first happening in Arlington came for rookie Trysten Hill. The second-round pick played in literally his first NFL game ever and he had a nice performance. That’s it. Nice.

To be clear, nice is good. Hill played well, but we don’t need to act like it was something that it wasn’t. He wasn’t who a lot of Cowboys fans wanted and the fact that he had yet to be active on the season served as a disappointment for many which is why there were so many eyes on him.

They all saw a play like this (among others).

To be clear, there’s a school of thought (a very smart school) that this wasn’t exactly an enormously promising play for Hill. From the DMN’s John Owning.

Hill is, as noted, a rookie and often times it’s hard to fully assess who a guy is in his first season. We likely won’t know until a few years from now who Hill is completely in terms of his on-the-field skills, but his debut was passable. And that’s important to note for the game as a whole and not just this play.

Perhaps what made Trysten Hill’s first NFL game all the more “nice” was how he spoke about it afterwards. Many have worried throughout the week that Hill could be like a recent Cowboys bust, the aforementioned Taco Charlton, but he spoke with humility and said that he was actually grateful for not being active over the last two weeks.

“These two weeks, I was glad I wasn’t out on the field because I needed to learn how the NFL works and learn the game a little bit more. I think I was really prepared when I came out here today and that’s what it’s all about.”

Hill didn’t look like an All-Pro or even a really good player during his Cowboys debut, but he looked like someone who has talent that is worth mining and trying to figure out. That’s what Rod Marinelli liked so much about him after all.

If I’m to be the judge I’m giving Hill a C overall for his debut, because that’s the definition of average. And to be clear being average here is okay. But I’ll put it to you as well. Vote, discuss, celebrate!