Vikings Waive Holton Hill, Ending Three-Year Experiment

It never quite worked out with Hill in Minnesota, even though the potential was there.

The Holton Hill era in Minnesota is over. The Vikings waived the 23-year-old cornerback from injured reserve on Tuesday, cutting ties with a talented, tantalizing player who couldn't stay on the field and put it all together.

Hill has always had the potential to be a good starting corner in the NFL, but injuries and off-the-field issues prevented his career from ever really getting off the ground up to this point.

Here's what I wrote about Hill back in August when he was impressing at Vikings training camp:

Holton Hill has always had talent. As an 18-year-old true freshman at Texas playing in the first Big 12 game of his career, he took an interception 41 yards to the house. He had two pick-sixes, a blocked field goal touchdown, and six pass breakups as a junior. During his rookie year with the Vikings, he played in all 16 games, recorded a pick and seven breakups, and had an excellent PFF coverage grade of 75.9. The issue has been with off-the-field stuff that has limited his ability to showcase that talent. Hill was benched for most of his sophomore year at Texas and saw his standout junior year cut short because of a suspension for violating team rules. Last year, looking to build off of a strong rookie campaign, Hill was hit with an eight-game suspension from the NFL (four for performance-enhancing substances, four for substances of abuse).

The Vikings signed Hill as an undrafted free agent out of Texas in 2018. He flashed a ton of ability as a rookie, using his size (6'2", 200) and physicality to his advantage as an outside corner. 

After his suspension-marred 2019 season, this year was supposed to be Hill's breakout campaign. He legitimately looked like the Vikings' best cornerback for much of training camp, making plays on the ball and rarely giving up much separation.

However, that play didn't translate to the field. The first two weeks of the season were rough for Hill, as he allowed 11 of 15 targets to be completed for 144 yards and a touchdown against the Packers and Colts. He played better in Weeks 3 and 4, allowing just four catches (one of them a 44-yard bomb to Kalif Raymond) on ten targets with three pass breakups.

Then came another tough break for Hill. He injured his foot and missed several weeks before finally being placed on IR. It didn't appear that he was going to be able to return this season. Now that the Vikings have decided to waive him, Week 4 against the Texans will likely go down as Hill's final game in Minnesota.

It didn't work out with the Vikings, but hopefully Hill's foot will heal and he'll get another chance to show what he can do in the NFL.

In other roster moves, the Vikings placed TE Brandon Dillon on practice squad injured reserve and signed former Buccaneers offensive lineman Zack Bailey to the practice squad.

Bailey, 25, has been with Tampa Bay since signing as a UDFA out of South Carolina in 2019. He made 38 starts for the Gamecocks split between left guard, center, and right tackle, so he has some versatility. Bailey may also be able to give the Vikings some intel about the Buccaneers ahead of this Sunday's game.

The #Vikings have signed OL Zack Bailey to the practice squad.

TE Brandon Dillon has been placed on practice squad/IR and CB Holton Hill has been waived from reserve/injured. pic.twitter.com/ry59ammi5x

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 8, 2020

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