Kris Richard endorsed Cowboys pick of disruptive DT Trysten Hill over Juan Thornhill
After not picking the first round on Thursday, thanks to a 2018 mid-season trade with the Oakland Raiders for receivers Amari Cooper, the Cowboys had to sit and watch 57 players go off the board before they picked in the second round on Friday, 58th overall.
Many of their scenarios and options went away but players they targeted and thought highly of were still sitting there, including Virginia safety Juan Thornhill and Central Florida defensive tackle Trysten Hill.
Both were huge positions of need but it’s no secret that the Cowboys did most of their homework on safeties, including bringing in six for pre-draft visits.
That the Cowboys picked Hill over Thornhill makes it easy to assume that the team still doesn’t value the safety position. They have only taken two in the first two rounds since 2002 (Roy Williams in the first round in 2002 and Byron Jones in the first round in 2015; Jones has since moved to safety).
That scenario is partially true. The Cowboys covet the defensive tackle more than the safety.
But what’s also true is that defensive passing game coordinator/secondary coach Kris Richard co-signed the pick of the defensive tackle over the safety. According to sources, Richard felt free safety Xavier Woods has a chance to develop into a star. With Thornhill pegged as a free safety, which would force the Cowboys to play left and right safeties rather than true free and strong safeties, Richard cast his ballot for Thornhill.
The rest of the Cowboys brass didn’t need much convincing. They were already high on Hill’s ability to be difference-making disruptor up front.
“I think that disrupting the passer helps makes safeties play better,” owner Jerry Jones said. “It makes it easier for them to do their thing, easier to cover, easier for the quarterback to not be as accurate, easier for the quarterback to have to throw quicker, easier for the quarterback to have to disrupt the plans of the offense. When you can get rush and disruption, which is what we think his game is, (that) is where it starts.
“We certainly decided that there. I don’t want to make any less of the fact that we just liked him as a player better than the alternative. It also happened to have fit us better. It was a good thing because we had discussed this for several days.”
Hill will compete with injury-prone Maliek Collins for the starting spot at the three-technique tackle spot. But he was drafted to start at the position. He has the upside a pass rusher that no one else at the position possesses.
In Rod Marinelli’s defense, a Warren Sapp-like beast at tackle is the supreme playmaker up front. The Cowboys haven’t had a tackle get double-digit sacks since Jason Hatcher had 11 in 2013.
The departed David Irving had seven in eight games in 2017 but he never put it all together.
Hill has a chance to be something the Cowboys are really looking for and need, according to vice president Stephen Jones.
“Again, he has a great combination of size, quickness, explosiveness and power,” coach Jason Garrett said. “I don’t know if you guys saw any of the highlights, but he has a great first step. He gets into the offensive linemen both in the run game, and is someone who can disrupt in the passing game. He’s young. He’s raw. But you see all those traits.
“And the stuff he has is a lot of the stuff that you simply can’t teach. Again, the combination of size and the physical traits of movement and quickness, he has that. So he’s going to learn technically how to become a better player, but we see him as someone who can disrupt both in the run game and the pass game.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2019 at 10:47 AM.
