Daxton
Hill.
Daxton
Hill.
Michigan· 6'0"· 191 lb· 4.38s 40
"The rare defensive back who could line up anywhere on the second level, Hill was drafted for 4.38 speed and slot coverage range rather than for a settled position, and the projection came with that trade-off attached."Pre-draft read
Hill was Michigan's nickel first and a safety second, spending most of his snaps in the slot with the freedom to spin down into the box or bail to the deep half. The traits are speed and range: he closes ground in a blink, carries slot receivers vertically without needing a safety over the top, and triggers downhill on run fits from depth.
The versatility is the selling point and the complication. He is comfortable matched on tight ends, quick in short-area transitions, but he was never asked to be the single-high organizer of a defense. Tackling is willing rather than clean, and at 191 pounds he can be run through in traffic. The separator is 4.38 speed at nickel, which lets a coordinator play him anywhere on the second and third levels.
Sub-heavy two-high defense that plays nickel as a base personnel and lets him match tight ends and slots without carrying deep-middle responsibility.
Year 1: full-time nickel in sub packages plus core special teams. Ceiling: every-down starting slot defender who moonlights at safety and corner.
A single-high scheme that asks him to be the deep-middle quarterback of the defense and fill downhill against gap-scheme runs from the box.
His value is highest when the scheme protects his frame and lets speed decide the rep.
Daxton Hill — 2021 Michigan Highlights
Junior-year nickel reel: slot coverage, downhill run fits and closing speed.
Michigan DB Daxton Hill — Big Ten pre-draft highlights
Conference cutup framing his role as the coverage constant on Michigan's 2021 defense.
Daxton Hill — 2019 Michigan Highlights
Freshman tape showing early range and the versatility that got him on the field immediately.
A five-star recruit out of Tulsa who chose Michigan over Alabama, Hill arrived as a safety and spent three seasons being moved wherever the defense needed athleticism. By 2021 he was the full-time nickel on a Big Ten championship team, a first-team All-Big Ten pick and the coverage constant on a front that produced Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo.
The production reads modestly on paper because his job was rarely to make the play. He posted 36 tackles as a freshman, 46 in six pandemic-shortened games in 2020, and 69 tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss, nine pass breakups and two interceptions in 2021. His combine confirmed the tape: 4.38 in the forty, 6.57 three-cone, 4.06 shuttle, elite movement numbers for a defensive back asked to cover grass and men. The flags were his frame, his contact balance as a tackler and a ball-production line that never spiked.
The board read him as a top-40 defensive back with the athletic profile of a top-15 pick, and the debate was whether he was a starting safety or a very good slot defender. Cincinnati, coming off a Super Bowl run and searching for coverage speed in the back end, took him at 31 and effectively picked the athlete over the positional answer.
- 01
Closing speed
4.38 acceleration shows up live, erasing throwing windows from the slot and letting him recover on double moves other nickels lose.
- 02
Slot coverage
Carries quick receivers vertically without safety help and mirrors short-area releases with clean footwork and no wasted steps.
- 03
Alignment flexibility
Played nickel, deep half, box and blitzer at Michigan, giving a coordinator a piece that fits any sub-package look.
- 04
Run trigger
Reads the backfield from depth and comes downhill with urgency, showing up in run fits that most slot defenders avoid.
- 05
Blitz value
Times pressure off the slot edge with real burst, an underrated part of his 4.5 tackle-for-loss junior season.
- 01
Frame
At 191 pounds he can be washed by tight ends and cut off by pulling linemen, which limits how often he can live in the box.
- 02
Tackling
Willing but inconsistent at the point of contact, with too many arm tackles and misses in space for a defender used near the line.
- 03
Ball production
Four career interceptions in 33 games; he covers well but does not consistently finish at the catch point.
- 04
Position clarity
Never the single-high organizer, so teams had to project which spot he would actually own in an NFL defense.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.38sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 121inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.57sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.06sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Michigan | 13 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | Michigan | 6 | 46 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Michigan | 14 | 69 | 0.5 | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| Career | — | 33 | 151 | 0.5 | 4 | 16 | 0 |
2020 and 2021 verified on the cfbstats player page; cfbstats does not publish 2019, so that season comes from the Tankathon prospect ledger. Tankathon lists 5.0 TFL in 2021 against 4.5 on cfbstats; the cfbstats figure is used and the career total reflects it. Season sums match the career line.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Reliable multi-year starter with coverage range and steady tackle volume, without the takeaway spikes.
The template for a fast, position-flexible defensive back who becomes the glue of a sub-package defense.
Athletic rotational safety who ends up scheme-dependent and gets exposed when asked to play in the box.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Daxton Hill has played two seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, primarily as a safety. He became a full-time starter in his second season.
Hill's rookie year was almost entirely special teams and sub packages: 15 games, two starts, 16 tackles behind an established safety room. In 2023 he finally started all 17 games and produced 110 tackles, 11 pass breakups and two interceptions, a genuine every-down season. Then 2024 broke the arc — a torn ACL five games in ended the year and cost him the fifth-year-option conversation. Cincinnati brought him back in 2025 and moved him to outside cornerback, where he started all 17 games with 88 tackles and 11 breakups. Four years in he has 54 games, 239 tackles, 24 pass deflections and three interceptions, and he has changed positions twice.
In hindsight this is the pick that never settled. Hill has been useful and durable outside the ACL year, but the team drafted a 4.38 athlete and spent four seasons deciding what he was — nickel, deep safety, then boundary corner. The pre-draft flag holds up: the tape said elite mover, high-floor coverage piece, no obvious position. He is a starter, not a bust, and not the difference-maker a late-first defensive back needs to be for a contender.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.