The Bengals already agreed to terms on Tuesday with former Cowboys cornerback Chidobe Awuzie to a three-year, $21,750 million deal with $7.5 million guaranteed, and they’ve now added ex-Steelers cornerback Mike Hilton to their secondary. Hilton gets $24 million over four years, and while these moves won’t ease the pain if the Bengals aren’t able to retain free-agent cornerback William Jackson III, Hilton comes in as a more than credible slot defender. In 2020, he allowed 23 catches from the slot on 35 targets for 246 yards, 167 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 59.9.
Without a lot of fanfare, Hilton has become a very solid overall defender — especially in zone coverage, where he allowed just seven receptions on 11 targets for 81 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. Just as crucially, all three of Hilton’s interceptions last season were on deep passes, and this pick of Deshaun Watson in Week shows Hilton’s acumen to stay with Watson through the scramble drill and break to the ball when it’s coming. Hilton (No. 28) has developed a preternatural sense of what quarterbacks are doing, and he’ll occasionally run a route better than the receiver he’s covering.
Last June, I ranked Hilton as the 11th-best slot defender in the NFL, noting that he was “aggressive to a fault at times, [and] can get gobbled up by smarter receivers running exact routes. But he also has the recovery speed to swoop in even after he’s beaten to deflect a pass and benefit his defense.” I’d say he’s cleaned up a lot of that, and I’d put him in the top five among slot defenders at this point.
An excellent blitzer with three sacks and nine total pressures in 2020, Hilton is an ideal addition for any defense playing primary sub-package schemes out of zone, especially against speed slot receivers who can be very tough to match across the field. The Bengals do fit those particular categories when they’re not experiencing scheme-related coverage busts.