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Ben Baby, ESPN Staff WriterOct 7, 2024, 12:50 PM ET
- Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
CINCINNATI — The Bengals will likely be without a key defender the rest of the season.
Cornerback Dax Hill is expected to be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in his right knee, a source confirmed to ESPN. Hill left the game toward the end of the first quarter of Sunday’s 41-38 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens that dropped the Bengals to 1-4 this season.
Hill was in coverage when he went down. He was promptly ruled out for the remainder of the game. Coach Zac Taylor had indicated that the injury was going to be severe.
“Certainly heartbreaking, to work like he does, if it’s a bad deal,” Taylor said after the game.
Hill, the team’s first-round pick in 2022, was the team’s starting free safety last season but was moved to cornerback after a disappointing year for the Bengals’ pass defense. He won the starting job over DJ Turner, a second-round draft pick in 2023 who started 12 games last season but faded toward the end of the year.
Hill earned the role in training camp and had been Cincinnati’s best outside cornerback through the first four games despite allowing a 7.2% completion rate over expectation as the nearest defender, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
“I thought Dax was playing really good football for us,” Taylor said after Sunday’s loss. “He’s worked really hard to get to that position.”
Turner took over as Hill’s replacement in the game against Baltimore and is the top candidate to keep that role. He will look to shore up a struggling Bengals defense. Cincinnati is 30th in the league in points allowed per drive and next-to-last (31st) in defensive success rate, according to ESPN Research.
