Bengals rookie Daxton Hill not given great odds to win DROTY

The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Daxton Hill with their first-round pick this year. Will he follow in Ja’Marr Chase’s footsteps and win a Rookie of the Year award? 

When the Bengals selected Ja’Marr Chase with the fifth overall pick last year, he was immediately given respectable odds to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year title. He ended up smashing the competition and was crowned the 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Hill has a more difficult path, however, and that shines through in WynnBET‘s odds for Defensive Rookie of the Year. The rookie out of Michigan has +4000 odds to be crowned the best rookie in 2022.

This isn’t a surprise by any means though.

First and foremost, he plays safety, which is probably the least sexy position on the defensive side of the ball. The safety with the best odds to win the title is Kyle Hamilton of the Ravens with +800 odds but Hamilton was considered a top 10 pick.

Secondly, Hill was a late first-round pick. The guys with the best odds are ones who, for the most part, were taken earlier on. If there are guys drafted later on with better odds than Hill, they play more prominent positions (Jermaine Johnson with +850, Nakobe Dean with +1300 plus he has that whole sliding down in the draft storyline that he can overcome, George Karlaftis with +1750).

Bengals rookie Daxton Hill not getting love in DROTY odds

In most years, I would have listed the Hill being on the Bengals roster as a reason why his odds were lower but that doesn’t seem like as much of an excuse after the team made it to the Super Bowl earlier this year. Joe Burrow is getting plenty of respect in the MVP odds (+1200), so we can throw that reason out the window, at least for now.

Hill has an uphill (pun intended) battle if he wants to be crowned Defensive Rookie of the Year but it’s not impossible. He’ll have plenty of times to shine on the big stage, as Cincinnati is armed with five primetime games this year.

If Daxton Hill can make his presence known early on, his odds for DROTY should increase quickly.