In a dramatic turn of events, the Kansas City Chiefs have reached agreement on a trade to send franchise wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins after failing to come together on a long-term contract extension to keep him in K.C. for the next few seasons.
It was reported just a week earlier by NFL reporter Ian Rapoport that the Chiefs were “deep in talks” to extend Hill which made all the sense in the world. He’s been a Pro Bowl player every single year of his career and was arguably already the best wide receiver in Chiefs history.
Hill, 28, has accumulated 6,630 receiving yards and 56 receiving touchdowns in six seasons with Kansas City and is widely regarded as the fastest man in football. He’s also showed no signs of slowing down.
Trading Tyreek Hill is a mistake for KC Chiefs.
So why trade him? We’re all wondering the same thing. How does trading Tyreek Hill make sense? Sometimes, there are trades that don’t make sense at all, and Hill’s deal is one of the few that don’t.
How did we get to this point, though? It seemed as if the two sides were talking for quite some time about a new deal, however, it seems as if the Las Vegas Raiders trade for Davante Adams that paid Adams $28 million per year threw a wrench into negotiations. Hill likely wanted that or more and the Chiefs were only willing to go so high before a trade was considered.
The consensus from a lot of Chiefs Kingdom is that the Chiefs should have probably just paid Hill what he’s worth. They really should have. Because for one, Hill took a discount the last time around in negotiations because of his ongoing legal troubles at the time. He’s kept his nose clean since then and has improved on the field. Pay Hill what he’s worth.
Instead, the Chiefs sent him to Miami for a multitude of picks including a first rounder and second rounder in 2022 while Miami makes him the highest-paid wide receiver in NFL history.
Why general manager Brett Veach decided to make this move is mind-boggling. With Hill now out of the picture, the Chiefs offense will likely never be the same as it was since the beginning of the Mahomes era. Hill changed the way defenses played the Chiefs and took up loads of attention. Now, that’s gone and you have a relatively unknown receiver group and an aging Travis Kelce.
Some could argue this means the Chiefs are moving towards a more balanced offense where they run the ball more bu that seems unlikely and trading Hill doesn’t make that happen, because it’s an easier decision for teams to load the box.
With no Hill, a worse offense, and a worse defense as it stands and really only the draft left to fill all the holes, it’s foolish to predict the Chiefs to win the division or the AFC with all the improvements the league has made. Everyone is taking a step forward while Kansas City takes a step backwards. We thought the Chiefs were set after finally finding their WR2 in JuJu Smith-Schuster, only for them to create a need at WR1.
Now you have all these lottery ticket draft picks with no guarantee any of them work out. Even if they do, it’s highly unlikely that they even equal the loss of a player like Hill.
If the Chiefs were uncomfortable paying Hill what he’s worth and close to $30 million per year, then that’s one thing, but they didn’t even get back a player in the deal. They have cap space now from trading Hill, but not much to use it on at this point.
This is what unfortunately has to happen when you give players like Frank Clark bad contracts or when you pay a left guard left tackle money. The Chiefs had to make a decision and they made the wrong one on a truly great player. They could have moved around money and kept Hill, but they decided it wasn’t worth it for whatever reason.