Tyreek Hill’s early Pro Bowl streak places him in rare company
By Matt Conner
Tyreek Hill’s four Pro Bowls in four seasons places him in rare company.
At this point, the list is only three players long.
When Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill was invited to play in the Pro Bowl at the end of the 2019 season, it was his fourth such honor. While four Pro Bowls in a single career would already be a significant feat for any player, for Hill it was the fourth invitation in his first four seasons. That, as it turns out, is a historic feat.
Only two wide receivers in NFL history have ever earned four Pro Bowl nods in their first four seasons in the league. Somehow they’re both Cincinnati Bengals.
The first was wide receiver Isaac Curtis, who enjoyed a tremendous run in the mid-seventies. After being taken in the first round by the Bengals in the 1973 NFL Draft, Curtis would go on to enjoy a very productive 12-year career in Cincy with his best seasons coming in his first four years in the league. In those years, he had 3,176 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns on 160 catches.
Two decades later, A.J. Green would repeat the feat with four Pro Bowl invites in four seasons in the league. After being selected fourth overall in the 2011 NFL Draft, Green would put monstrous numbers as the primary target for the Bengals offense. In those four years, he had 329 catches for 4874 yards and 35 scores.
As for Hill, he set the Chiefs single-season receiving mark with 1,427 yards in 2018. Overall he had 281 catches for 4,115 yards and 32 touchdowns in that same four-season stretch. What’s makes these totals even more amazing is that Hill missed four games last season and the majority of another one with a clavicle injury. He was also primarily a gadget player on offense for his first season in K.C.
If Hill is able to make the Pro Bowl in 2020, he will match Green as the only players to earn five consecutive Pro Bowl honors to begin a career. And Green would keep him company for quite some time, since Green was a Pro Bowl player for his first seven years in the league. He missed the cut in 2018 and didn’t play a single snap in 2019 due to injury.
Given his stated goal of hitting 2,000 receiving yards this coming season, Hill certainly has his sights set on greatness in the coming year. He’ll need to remain healthy in order to see it through, but so far he’s shown himself with plenty of talent to make it five consecutive Pro Bowls. Here’s hoping the streak continues for quite some time.