Tyreek Hill is one of the deadliest players on the NFL gridiron. Once he gets moving, it’s hard to catch the Cheetah.
That’s one of the reasons why fans were shocked when the Chiefs traded him to the Dolphins. With Hill and Travis Kelce catching passes from Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City’s offense always had the potential to blow out their opponents.
But Hill is in Miami catching passes from Tua Tagovailoa, and yesterday we found out why.
He was “underutilized” and “wasn’t fully appreciated” according to Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
Hill elaborated on his feelings on his new podcast, It Needed To Be Said.
The speedy 28-year-old receiver said he tried to work it out with the Chiefs without becoming a distraction or a diva.
All he wanted was to be used better and compensated properly.
“If teams are gonna give us favorable one-on-one matches against their best corner, I don’t see why teams don’t utilize their best receiver,” Hill said. “And that’s where probably like me and the Chiefs fell apart right there. When I’m like, yo, I don’t mean to talk or be a diva in some situation, but can I see the pill some time, please? Just give me the ball, please.”
Hill is a 6x Pro Bowler, 3x All-Pro and Super Bowl champion.
Last season he caught 111 passes for 1,239 yards and 9 TDs. That’s 24 more receptions but 37 fewer yards and 6 fewer TDs than the previous season.
With his talent, he felt he could do more if he was more involved, with the ultimate goal of helping Kansas City win more.
“I don’t care about notoriety, though. I don’t care about none of that. The only thing I care about is respect within the building. Notoriety outside the building, I don’t care about none of that, man. Because none of that ain’t gonna win us games on Sunday,” said Hill.
When you listen to Tyreek talk, you recognize that he’s not selfish.
He kept his feelings out of the media and only expressed his frustrations to Rosenhaus.
Tyreek just wanted to help the Chiefs win, something he expressed to head coach Andy Reid.
“I tried my best. I talked to the big man, Andy Reid. I talked to the quarterback. I’m like, ‘Look, can we make something happen? Can we make something happen? Can the guaranteed money make sense to me? Can it make sense to my family, please?'”
Mind you, Hill had no desire to leave the Chiefs.
“We reached out to the Chiefs and we said ‘hey, we want to keep it going. Tyreek wanted to be there.’ Tyreek wanted to be in Kansas City,” said Rosenhaus. “We tried to do an extension with them.”
“Yes, yes. Say that again,” said Hill to Rosenhaus during the podcast. “Tyreek wanted to be in KC.”
He doubled up on that statement later in the show.
“I love Andy Reid. I love Patrick Mahomes. My brother forever. Love Travis Kelce. I love all my teammates,” said Hill.
But it didn’t work out so the Dolphins pounced on the opportunity to bring him to South Beach.
Miami traded five draft picks to acquire Hill and then signed him to a four-year, $120 million extension, including $72.2 million guaranteed. That also included $52.535 million at signing.
That made Hill, the Chiefs’ fifth-round draft pick in the 2016 NFL Draft (165th overall), the highest paid, non-QB at the time.
However, Aaron Donald’s new contract announced last week gave the defensive star that title.
Tyreek and the Chiefs had a great run, but now he’s taking his speed and stardom to the Dolphins with the hope of bringing a Super Bowl to Miami.