Does he beat out Bobby Carpenter for our biggest draft bust ever?
For us old timers.. Rod Hill during the Landry era....
Most teams rated defensive back Rod Hill as a third-round pick at the earliest. But the
Cowboys, vice president Gil Brandt said, were always known
''for pulling rabbits out of the hat.''
They were magicians who had come up with players like Calvin Hill, Duane Thomas and Thomas Henderson. Rod Hill played for a small school, Kentucky State, but he showed incredible athletic skills on the Cowboys` tests and had averaged 19 yards on punt returns his senior year. Brandt and coach Tom Landry figured he would return kicks until he developed as a cornerback. Picking 25th, they gambled.
Hill, who was cut by the
Bills midway through the 1986 season and finished the year with Detroit, was ''not a player I felt comfortable taking,'' coach Tom Landry admitted the other day, although he has the final say on the Cowboys` picks in the first six rounds. Landry looked at Hill as boom or bust.
''It was a very high risk pick there,'' Landry said. ''There`s no surprise when you miss on a Rod Hill because you`ve taken a real calculated risk.''
Hill was a disappointment right from the start: The Cowboys felt he was immature, not a hard worker and didn`t take the game seriously enough. He alienated many of the veterans because he talked too much.
Why did they take him? Scout Walt Yowarsky gave him high marks for his coverage ability, although his toughness was questioned. Gene Stallings, then the Cowboys secondary coach, worked Hill in Kentucky and came back urging the Cowboys to draft him.
Brandt said his first indication that Hill was a mistake came in the first rookie scrimmage against the Rams: ''He got beat for a touchdown and it looked like he didn`t even try. That started to turn on the light.''