Vikings Release Former Starting Veteran Cornerback

Getty Holton Hill (24) was released by the Vikings on Wednesday.

The Holton Hill experiment is over in Minnesota.

After paying $75,000 guaranteed to sign Hill in rookie free agency back in 2018, the Vikings released the third-year undrafted cornerback out of Texas on Tuesday, the team announced. Hill was viewed as the team’s top cornerback coming out of training camp and started the first four games of the season before suffering a foot injury that landed him on the injured reserve list.

The 6-foot-2-inch cornerback showed potential starting in three games his rookie year, but fell out of head coach Mike Zimmer’s good graces after receiving a pair of four-game suspensions in 2019 — one for performance-enhancing drugs and the other for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.

Rather than hold onto Hill, who would become a restricted free agent this offseason, the Vikings cut ties with the 23-year-old corner.

Underlying Hill’s release, tight end Brandon Dillon, who saw playing time in place of Irv Smith Jr. the past two weeks, was placed on the practice squad injured reserve list. The Vikings also added former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive lineman Zack Bailey to the practice squad.

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 Hill Named a Breakout Candidate for 2020

GettyHolton Hill was named the Vikings’ 2020 breakout player by Pro Football Focus.

Before the 2020 season started, Hill was named one of the top breakout candidates at his position by Pro Football Focus. With the release of all three starting cornerbacks in 2019, it seemed Hill was out of Zimmer’s dog house.

“(Hill’s) done a good job,” Zimmer said in a press conference during training camp this summer. “He’s come back, seems to be a lot more mature this year. A lot more business-like. I told him the other day, his deal is that he has to prove he can be the same guy every day. He’s done a pretty good job of that so far. As it starts getting longer into camp that will be the key. Holton has all the attributes you need at corner. Hopefully, he’ll continue to progress each and every day.”

In his rookie season, Hill allowed the sixth-lowest passer rating (67.0) among cornerbacks in 2018, surrendering 16 catches on 31 targets and a touchdown while notching an interception of his own. He also ranked second among qualified cornerbacks with a 25.8 forced incompletion percentage, per PFF.

Hill struggled this season in his four starts while the Vikings defense was in its infancy. He allowed a 120.9 passer rating when targeted as opposing wide receivers caught 18-of-27 targets for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Vikings Cornerbacks Finding Their Form

Hill’s release coincides with rookie Cameron Dantzler’s best game of the season. Dantzler’s first career interception — also the first by a Vikings cornerback this season — against the Jacksonville Jaguars was paydirt for the third-round rookie, who allowed just 1 catch for 3 yards on 7 targets last Sunday. Also forcing a fumble and recovering it himself, Dantzler earned PFF’s Week 13 Defensive Rookie of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week honors.

This season, first-round rookie Jeff Gladney has been the most consistent corner in the Vikings secondary which has played without Hill and fellow third-year corner Mike Hughes.

Hughes, a 2018 first-round pick, is currently on injured reserve with a neck injury unrelated to the broken vertebrae he suffered in Week 17 last year that forced him to miss the playoffs, the Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling reported.

Beyond Hughes and Hill, the Vikings entered the season with just 8 career snaps at cornerback but appear willing to move on from the latter elder statesmen of the cornerback group with the emergence of Gladney and Dantzler.

Second-year corner Kris Boyd, Arizona Cardinals transplant Chris Jones and fifth-round rookie Harrison Hand round out the contributions from the team’s depth on the edges.

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Trevor Squire is a Heavy contributor covering the Minnesota Vikings and journalism graduate from the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities. Connect with him on Twitter @trevordsquire and join our Vikings community at Heavy on Vikings on Facebook.