Since Patrick Mahomes took over because the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, Tyreek Hill is fourth within the NFL in targets, behind solely Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, and former teammate Travis Kelce. Yet regardless of this hefty utilization within the Chiefs’ offense, Hill wished extra.
In an interview with Shannon Sharpe, Hill defined that though he loved his time with the Chiefs, across the midpoint of final season, he began to doubt his future with the staff. The star wideout was upset that his involvement within the offense would lower from week to week, claiming that in some video games he’d solely get two targets, and that wasn’t as many as he would’ve appreciated. But the factor is, that’s kind of unfaithful.
Since arriving in South Beach, Hill has solely had good issues to say about his staff, and particularly his quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Hill even went so far as to say that in some areas Tua was preferable to Mahomes. Now, clearly, the six-time Pro Bowler isn’t going to say something damaging concerning the staff he’s presently for, particularly after they’re in the course of a playoff push. However, Hill by no means shared this similar form of sentiment about Mahomes, regardless of Mahomes being considered among the finest quarterbacks within the league for the final 4 years of Hill’s profession in Kansas City.
Hill solely had 14 video games with 5 or fewer targets with Mahomes in Kansas City. Six of these got here in 2019. To be truthful, a kind of video games noticed Hill play solely seven snaps, so let’s say 5 of his 13 least-involved video games occurred in 2019. Five extra occurred in 2021. Hill claims in his interview that he didn’t actually get annoyed together with his goal share till the center of final season, so the place was this obsession with targets in 2019? Hill had the identical variety of video games with 5 or fewer targets in 2021 as 2019, however now it’s an issue? I don’t get it.
Yes, Hill has just one such sport in 2022, however to say he wasn’t getting used sufficient in Kansas City is laughable. Not solely was Hill the seventh-most focused participant within the NFL final 12 months, which might put him above the likes of DK Metcalf, Austin Ekeler, and A.J. Brown this 12 months, however the Chiefs have been additionally an excellent staff, vulnerable to taking part in with a lead, that means the passing sport typically grew to become a lot much less prevalent as video games wore on. That’s not the case as a lot in Miami. Only 4 of their video games this 12 months have seen the Dolphins main by greater than a landing after three quarters. That’s rather less than one-third of their complete video games.
Through 13 video games in 2021, the Chiefs had accrued seven such contests. Obviously, your staff goes to run the ball much more if you’ve already received the sport in hand with just one quarter left to play. Essentially, Hill received upset as a result of his staff was so good, they’d moderately relaxation him than put on him out. That’s some tremendous entitled B.S. proper there if you happen to ask me.
Ben Roethlisberger has talked about related misunderstandings together with his former receivers, as effectively. On his podcast, Big Ben talked about how previous to video games the place the Steelers have been going to face unhealthy run defenses or the place unhealthy climate was imminent, he’d speak to particular receivers and say “Hey, we’re going to run the ball a lot.” He claims he’d inform his receivers this on Wednesday or Thursday, a number of days prematurely to get them prepped for what was certain to be a low-usage sport. Roethlisberger claims that all through the week, his receivers would at all times inform him issues like “Hey, I’m with you,” “I understand,” or “I just want to win,” however when sport time got here round, they’d get annoyed at their lack of targets.
The Steelers have been some of the top-heavy receiving corps for years within the twilight of Big Ben’s profession, so the truth that his finest receivers would get annoyed is simply one other instance of spoiled receivers at all times eager to be within the highlight. Roethlisberger by no means names the receiver in query, however I believe we’re all pondering the identical man. I’m not saying Hill is as unhealthy an individual as Antonio Brown, however I doubt he ever needs to be put in the identical sentence as AB from a persona perspective.