What 2nd round DT comes in and starts day 1? That's incredibly rare. Some 1st rounders don't even start day 1 at the 1t or the 3t.
I'm sure they expected for him to be apart of the rotation but I doubt they expected him to start day 1. They didn't even expect LVE to start day 1.
I never said "start" in my post. But it's some revisionist history if we are going to try to sell Hill as being a long term project that the Cowboys weren't expecting much from this year.
And as for your question............ last year, BJ Hill was taken in the 3rd round and played the 2nd most snaps at DT for the Giants and was actually pretty good. PJ Hall was taken in the 2nd round by the Raiders and he played the 2nd most snaps at DT for the Raiders.
In 2017, Malik McDowell was a 2nd rounder but he was a wack job. The other 2nd round DT was Tomlinson, who played the 2nd most snaps at DT his rookie year.
In 2016, Chris Jones was the first DT off the board in the 2nd round and he made an immediate impact in KC (granted, KC plays a 3-4 and Jones was playing a DE spot there, so not a total apples to apples comparison). The other DTs taken in the 2nd round that year were Austin Johnson (who didn't do much as a rookie), A'Shawn Robinson (was pretty effective his rookie year), Jarran Reed (pretty effective as a rookie) and Adam Gostis (didn't do much for the Broncos his rookie year).
So no, it's not rare to find a DT in the 2nd round that can make an impact. Note, I am not saying Hill is a bust by any stretch. I am not ready to say he won't even have an impact for us this year. But let's not re-write history here and act like the Cowboys took Hill knowing he would be a wash this year and need a year of training to become an effective player for us. Let's also not try to sell this idea that 2nd round DTs can't have impacts right from the start of their careers.