FRISCO, Texas — Four days before his Dallas Cowboys debut, TY Hilton stood by his new locker and shared a bold proclamation.
“I can still walk,” said the 33-year-old four-time Pro Bowler, who Dallas signed Dec. 12. “If you think you can just get up there and play hand-to-hand press and not get run over, you’re crazy.”
Hilton didn’t exactly have the details in mind that would ultimately materialize in his first career catch with a team not named the Indianapolis Colts. After all, who would have bet on a hit against third and 30th, or a pass that traveled longer than quarterback Dak Prescott’s previous 2,136 completions?
But so was Hilton’s 52-meter save on Saturday.
The Cowboys can already confirm their decision to sign him.
“I’m really proud of him and also proud of our team,” said team owner and general manager Jerry Jones. “He gave this thing a dimension that just opens it up.”
The Cowboys didn’t need Hilton to be their Hail Mary offensive player when he signed. But they sought a deep threat that could stretch the field vertically, opened the playbook for coordinator Kellen Moore and called for defensive attention to ease the load on weapons, including No. 1 wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.
For weeks, Jones, coaches and players had been publicly voicing that Odell Beckham Jr. would be that guy. Then Beckham attended Dec. 5-6 and declined to train in a revealing move about his readiness and recovery timeline after tearing an ACL in February. When Hilton visited a week later, he ran the tracks so smoothly the Cowboys didn’t even ask him to finish the script. Hilton could help, they thought.
He even did it on a coach-dictated pitch count Saturday in the Cowboys’ 40-34 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Teammates expect he will continue to do so as they hope to threaten well into the playoffs.
“You keep trying to double me down, I’ve got playmakers on the outside,” said Lamb, who has 1,207 yards and eight touchdowns this year. “[Hilton is] very deceptive, its routing. He is a smooth operator. He understands the game very well.
The story goes on
“Don’t let its size fool you – its speed will sneak up on you.”
Andrew Luck: “The best I’ve ever played with”
TY Hilton’s 52-yard catch in third and 30th place was a game-changing play in the Cowboys’ win over the Eagles. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
In a decade with the Colts, Hilton adopted his nickname “Ghost.” Like a ghost, he would slip out of a defender’s zone if they didn’t pay attention quickly. Go balls were a specialty.
Hilton caught 631 passes in Indianapolis for 9,691 yards and 53 touchdowns. He earned four Pro Bowl spots by developing rare chemistry with a 2012 classmate, Andrew Luck. When Luck suddenly retired during the 2019 preseason, he gave Hilton a special shout-out.
“I probably had more fun throwing the football to TY than should be allowed,” Luck said. “When I was away in the second half of the season in 2017, I had to figure out why I wanted to come back to play football. And I just boiled it down to the fact that I liked my friends and loved throwing the football to TY Hilton.
“He’s the best soccer player I’ve ever played with and he’s a better teammate than a soccer player.”
Hilton played for the Colts until last year as injuries limited his availability. When he didn’t sign with a team ahead of training camp this year, Hilton said he decided to spend the fall with his sons and cheer on their football teams as they had long cheered on his. He kept running if the opportunity presented itself, and Hilton’s father, a high school quarterback, threw it at him on the Colts’ training camp indoor field.
In early December, Hilton said his agent had started “getting a bunch of calls.” He signed with the Cowboys on December 12 and spent 10 hours a day hammering out the script. The team left him inactive against the Jacksonville Jaguars the following Sunday, preferring that he practice for another week, although he believed he was physically and mentally ready. He was then on a pitch count against the Eagles on Saturday and eventually settled for 12 of 73 offensive snaps.
On two of them he delivered momentum-generating first downs.
The Cowboys’ defense had opened the second quarter with a snack, meaning Prescott and company were then tasked with capitalizing on possession. But a trick play backfired to the tune of a 10-yard sack from Prescott. Two back-to-back shots to Lamb brought progress forward, but weren’t enough to compensate.
The Cowboys, somewhat surprisingly, decided to try fourth and eighth from the Eagles’ 45-yard line.
Hilton ran an inside route before breaking to the outside and making contact with Eagles cornerback Darius Slay on his way. Slay was called out for illegal contact, and the Cowboys gained 5 yards and, more importantly, a first down.
Three games later, Prescott found Lamb deep on a curved route, Lamm spins into the end zone for a 36-yard go-ahead touchdown — one of the Cowboys’ rare cues of the day.
Slay’s second and even bigger slip came in the fourth quarter after two sacks left the Cowboys in third and 30th place. Again the cowboys needed a savior. Again, Moore authorized an aggressive play call while telling Prescott to still “use it wisely.”
McCarthy tuned into the headset for a play that would earn two go routes. “If we can get a runner,” the head coach told Prescott, “take the shot.” Hilton knew he would run away.
Hilton began gaining ground on Slay, who later regretted keeping his eyes on the backfield rather than respecting the 33-year veteran’s chances. Hilton said he didn’t even need to hit his fastest gear as the ball was “on the money.” Hilton credits Prescott’s throw, which hit a career-high 61.2 air yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. And the Cowboys’ chance to end the game again at 34 — and soon pull away with the NFC East win — was 52 yards closer.
“He started it,” Hilton said of Prescott’s ball. “I mean, I told you all, if you think I can’t run, that’s on you. I told you all week, the week before. Not my problem.”
Prescott’s Diner: “Third-and-30, find TY”
Which already brings Hilton to Cowboys
The Cowboys retake the field in a short week with a Thursday night visit to the Tennessee Titans, an AFC South team that Hilton played 18 times as division rival Colt. Fourteen of those were wins, with Hilton 71 catches for 1,078 yards and six touchdowns on the streak.
Such familiarity is just one benefit of an experienced receiver joining an otherwise fledgling corps. Hilton last week consulted with cornerback Trevon Diggs on Eagles concepts, Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni spent three years as Hilton’s offensive coordinator in Indianapolis.
Hilton also shares route-running details with Lamb that Reggie Wayne, the coach of today’s Colts receivers, once taught Hilton.
“Just help him route, open, that little bit of separation to help him make it from a contested catch to an uncontested one, and build his yards after the catch,” Hilton said. “On his touchdown, we had this similar play call in practice and I said to him, ‘Aim a little higher. It’s easier to adjust back down than it is to adjust back up.
“He made that adjustment and was able to score.”
The Cowboys’ chances of picking the Eagles for a division title are slim, requiring two Dallas wins and two Philadelphia losses to complete the season. The Cowboys’ likely fifth seed in the NFC playoff bracket would see them travel to postseason games. But they would also serve against the champion of the NFC South, which currently has every team under 500.
With a dip in defensive reliability in December, the Cowboys’ strong offense continues to bear a greater burden in those results. And Dallas passing will play a big part in any run they can make.
Hilton quickly gained the trust of teammates who just a month ago were excessively recruiting Beckham Jr. Cowboys players and knew they wanted a playmaker and that they wanted to load up on talent ahead of the postseason.
They seem to have found the threat they wanted, albeit with a different shirt name on their back than they expected.
The cowboys are excited. So is Hilton’s longtime quarterback for the Colts.
“[Luck]actually texted me after the game and said, ‘Man, I’m so proud,'” Hilton said. “‘I’m so happy to see you playing out there again.’ Because he always wanted me to come out and play again.”
Follow Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein