According to Daniel Jeremiah, the Kansas City Chiefs have the single most explosive player in the National Football League in Tyreek Hill.
Daniel Jeremiah is one of the most respected NFL analysts working today, as his draft coverage and rankings are usually spot-on and his Move the Sticks podcast provides excellent perspective on all aspects of the game. It’s interesting then to hear him describe a certain member of the Kansas City Chiefs in recent days when he called Tyreek Hill, the team’s top wide receiver, the most explosive player in football.
Even more interesting is that Jeremiah wanted to make sure he was clear and not just getting caught up in the moment. We will let him explain. Check out what he said on a recent Move the Sticks episode.
"“This is not a debate to me. If you watch the NFL at any point in time, and you see Tyreek Hill on the field, he looks different than everybody else out there,” said Jeremiah. “He is clearly the most explosive player in the NFL. On a field full of fast people, he’s running at a different speed. You have to look at your TV to see if you have a button pushed or something, because it doesn’t look normal. He’s not one of the most explosive players, he’s the most explosive player.”"
This brings up a few things for us here at Arrowhead Addict. First of all, the numbers back him up. Hill not only had 75 catches for 1,183 receiving yards last year, but the metrics say he was even better than that. Alex Smith and company averaged a 130.5 passer rating when targeting Hill, which is second best in the NFL.
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Even more, per Pro Football Focus, quarterbacks had a passer rating of 138.9 when targeting Hill on passes of 20 yards or more, the second best mark of the last decade in the NFL. In short, there’s not a better deep ball receiver in the league today (and now Patrick Mahomes is his QB).
What’s also interesting to us about Hill being noticed at this level is that the fans and others haven’t quite caught on (or they’re enamored with name players). What we hope is that Hill didn’t get pigeonholed as a Devin Hester type because the reality is that he’s made the transition to elite wide receiver. Yes, he’s made the last two Pro Bowls, but they’ve both been for his return skills (which made sense his rookie campaign) despite ranking No. 7 overall in receiving yards in the NFL last season. Maybe this is the year he makes it for the right position.
And let’s not forget that Hill as a return man might become more valuable moving forward instead of less. Rule changes to kickoffs for 2018, at least, will reportedly make them more like punt returns, per Dave Toub, which means Hill could return to kickoff returns as well as punt returns if the Chiefs decide it’s worth the injury risk or utilizing his electrifying speed in myriad ways.
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Hill is not just fast. He’s the fastest. It’s nice to see someone outside of Arrowhead noticing what we’ve all learned in two short seasons following the former fifth round choice. Hill is a truly unique talent, a la Jamaal Charles, and Chiefs Kingdom is lucky to have him playing at Arrowhead.