Tyreek HillImage: Getty Images
Since Patrick Mahomes took over as quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, Tyreek Hill is fourth in the NFL in goals, behind only Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs and former teammate Travis Kelce. But despite that powerful effort on the Chiefs offense, Hill wanted more.
In an interview with Shannon Sharpe, Hill explained that while he enjoyed his time with the Chiefs, midway through last season he began to have doubts about his future with the team. The star wideout was upset that his offensive involvement was dwindling by the week, and claimed he was only getting two goals in some games, and they weren’t as many as he would have liked. But the thing is, that’s more or less wrong.
Since arriving in South Beach, Hill has had nothing but good things to say about his team and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in particular. Hill even went so far as to say that in some areas, Tua is preferable to Mahomes. Now, of course, the six-time Pro Bowler won’t say anything negative about the team he’s currently on, especially when they’re in the middle of a playoff push. However, Hill never shared this same opinion of Mahomes, despite Mahomes being considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league during the final four years of his career at Kansas City.
Hill only had 14 games with five goals or fewer with Mahomes in Kansas City. Six of those came in 2019. To be fair, Hill only played seven snaps in one of those games, so let’s say five of his 13 least involved games happened in 2019. Five more took place in 2021. Hill claims in his interview that he wasn’t really frustrated with his goal percentage until the middle of last season, so where was that obsession with goals in 2019? Hill had the same number of games with five or fewer goals in 2021 as he did in 2019, but is it a problem now? I do not get it.
Yes, Hill only has one game like that in 2022, but to say he didn’t get used to it enough in Kansas City is ridiculous. Not only was Hill the 7th pick in the NFL last year, which would put him ahead of DK Metcalf, Austin Ekeler and AJ Brown this year, but the Chiefs were a very good team to play with and a lead, which means that passing was often much less common as games progressed. That’s not so much the case in Miami. In just four of their games this year, the Dolphins led by more than a touchdown after three quarters. That’s a little less than a third of their total games.
In thirteen games in 2021, the Chiefs had accumulated seven such contests. Obviously your team will run the ball a lot more when you already have the game in your hands and there’s only a quarter left. Essentially, Hill was upset because his team was so good that they would rather rest him than tire him out. That’s a super titled BS right there if you ask me.
Ben Roethlisberger also spoke to his former bankruptcy trustees about similar misunderstandings. On his podcast, Big Ben spoke about how he spoke to certain receivers before games where the Steelers faced a poor run defense or where bad weather was imminent and said, “Hey, we’re going to run the ball a lot.” He claims he would tell his receivers several days in advance on Wednesday or Thursday to prepare them for a low-usage game. Roethlisberger claims his receivers will tell him things like “Hey, I’m with you”, “” I see” or “I just want to win” but when the time came they were frustrated by their lack of goals.
For years, the Steelers were one of the top-heavy receiving corps in the twilight of Big Ben’s career. So the fact that his best recipients were frustrated is just another example of how spoiled recipients always wanted the spotlight. Roethlisberger never names the recipient in question, but I think we’re all thinking of the same guy. I’m not saying Hill is as bad a person as Antonio Brown, but I doubt he would ever want to be put in the same sentence as AB from a personal point of view.
