By Week 5 of the NFL season, there aren’t many surprises left out there. So I doubt I will be shocking anyone when I say Kansas City Chiefs rookie Tyreek Hill has been fairly impressive during the first quarter of the season.
Before I go any further though, I’d like to make one quick point. We are all aware of Hill’s past indiscretions. Everyone can make their own opinions on if Hill deserved to be drafted by an NFL team or not, or if that team should have been the Chiefs. That is a different debate for a different forum; here we are just talking what happens inside the confines of Arrowhead Stadium.
Now that we have that out of the way, is this guy fast or what? He was drafted by the Chiefs to continue their search for….well, I have no idea what they are looking for. It seems to have all started with Dante Hall, aka “The Human Joystick”. We all remember the greatest kick returner in Chiefs history right?
What most of us have blocked from our minds was their failed attempt to make him a wide receiver. This was followed up with the Dexter McCluster same failed attempt as well as the now failed attempt of DeAnthony Thomas. The Chiefs seem to have a thing for drafting small & fast running backs from college and trying to turn them into wide receivers in the NFL.
They have all been good to great kick returners, and Hill appears to maybe be the best at that so far. He’s already gotten a kick return & punt return touchdown this season, but both were called back due to questionable penalty calls. He has shown incredible speed & elusiveness in his returns as well as vision to find the hole in the return and then burst through it. It’s this talent that has shown through and earned Hill the right to be starting kick & punt returner and I dare anyone to argue that he shouldn’t be.
The next logical step in Hill’s process then is finding other ways to use his talents and abilities. Currently head coach Andy Reid has been using him in what I would call a gadget role. By that I mean he’s listed as a wide receiver but he rarely gets the ball thrown on what most would view as usual wide receiver routes. Most of his touches on the offensive side have come in the form of quick screens and end-arounds.
If you’ve been watching the defenses response to these plays, you’ve probably seen the same thing I have which is that they are not surprising anyone nor are they working. These plays have become predictable, and it’s that predictability that ruined the previous players I mentioned. The only logical answer to why the Chiefs continue to use Hill in this manner is because they don’t feel he has a firm enough grasp on route running to be used in the normal course of the offense.
So while most people I see on social media are clamoring to see more of Hill I am going to be the lone wolf stating I want to see less of him. I only want to see Hill on special teams for the rest of the 2016 season. As a returner & gunner he is a real weapon for the Chiefs. As a wide receiver in 2016, he is a liability. He hampers the offense by making them predictable. I do believe he could become a weapon at wide receiver, but I believe this will take a full off-season of working on his route running and becoming a well-rounded wide receiver.
Once he’s done this, then they can put him on the field and the defense won’t be able to key on one route or type of play. Instead of keying on the short play and allowing the defense to cut the field in half, the defense now has to defend the entire field thus opening up any play the Chiefs may have called.
For 2017 and beyond, I want Hill in my offense, but for 2016, just give him over to special teams coach David Toub and tell him that he’s all his.
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