First of all, this article is not named “Why We’ll Miss Tyreek Hill.” If you’ve been a Kansas City Chiefs fan for any length of time, you know and will miss WR Tyreek Hill… at the very least, ON the field.
This piece is primarily in response to a Monday morning piece at ArrowheadAddict by Lyle Graversen called: “Will it be easy for Kansas City Chiefs to replace Tyreek Hill? Read the article here: https://arrowheadaddict.com/2022/05/23/will-easy-kansas-city-chiefs-replace-tyreek-hill/2/
Lyle makes it clear cut. He is a Hill fan, and you should know I’m a part of that same Hill Fanclub. Graversen makes the point that over the past four seasons, WITH Hill on board, the Chiefs offense has “averaged”:
- 219 receptions
- 2,911 yards
- 24 touchdowns
And then Graversen lays out how the same stats can be achieved with this year’s collection of wideouts:
- Juju Smith-Schuster: 70 receptions, 800 yards, 7 touchdowns
- Mecole Hardman: 60 receptions, 750 yards, 6 touchdowns
- Skyy Moore: 50 receptions, 700 yards, 6 touchdowns
- Marquez Valdes-Scantling: 39 receptions, 661 yards, 5 touchdowns
Lyle recognizes that there may be some give and take in those figures, but his point is clear: the 2022 Chiefs collection of Wide Receivers should have no problem matching(or exceeding) their average receiving output of the past four years.
In a recent piece on Bryan Cook, I mentioned that a big-time defensive hit has more of the ability to change the momentum of a game than any other play… except perhaps a long bomb touchdown.
While I Don’t doubt speedster Mecole Hardman may supply a few of those thunderbolts, it will likely be the combination of three or four WRs who have enough acceleration to force opposing defenses to cover a lot of real estate, wide and deep. We need to keep in mind that whenever Hardman was on the field, he had Ty Hill as the QB focus of Patrick Mahomes. 2022 changes that fact.
Hardman Top 10 Video, see it here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mecole+hardman&docid=608050842679772353&mid=0596D7A67707D35310E20596D7A67707D35310E2&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
o 4.29 Tyreek Hill——————4.33 (But speed is not just what makes Hill Special)
o Mecole Hardman 4.37 Hardman was close to Ty Hill’s time: https://nflcombineresults.com/playerpage.php?i=27347
o Marquez Valdes-Scantling-4.37
o Skyy Moore 4.41-Combine Timed
o Let’s not forget the forgotten man: Josh Gordon, who once ran a 4.3 40-yard dash.
It’s hard to picture an Andy Reid offense without the fastest man in football, but that doesn’t mean Reid will be running an offense without speed. There is plenty of it!
This leads us to how we will likely miss Hill the most, whether or not that means he scores… or not. Take a look at this video of Ty Hill: https://youtu.be/VJV7KNvOKpw
It’s when not if – to be sure, Ty Hill’s skills will sooner or later be missed- in a particular moment. But Brett Veach made the decision, and we go with what we’ve got. I like it. It is a powerful group of WRs. But, as noted, it’s not if but when! An additional question needs to be asked with all the other additions: How much?
While I’m going to miss Tyreek Hill, no doubt about it, I’m also excited to see the new cinematic multiverse of an offense the Chiefs are growing into… it will also be fun to treat OTAs like a Trailer for the upcoming season.
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne