If you’ve been paying attention then you could see the Tyreek Hill hype coming from a mile away. The Kansas City Chiefs WR is small, quick and shifty like Dexter McCluster and De’Anthony Thomas before him. The Chiefs are hoping that Hill turns into more of a contributor than DMC or DAT did.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Brad Childress recently talked about some of the challenges of getting Hill to fit in the offense.
“More than I think size or skillset, I think getting him acclimated to the different spots he’s playing on the field,” Childress said. “We got him playing like - Where’s Waldo? We have him bouncing in a lot of different positions, so that’s a lot to gather as we start down these installs.”
That’s true of most Andy Reid receivers and it’s why I initially didn’t expect much from Hill or his fellow draftee Demarcus Robinson. Reid has them learning a number of receiver positions on the field.
“He’s got great aptitude,” Childress continued. “He appears to be able to have the ability to do that, and when he gets in those spots, he’s going to have a lot of freedom that he doesn’t know he has right now – to convert a route, to be able to strike a route back outside. So, just getting familiar. We say, ‘We don’t like line runners,’ and all the young guys are line runners right now. There are so many things that they can do along those lines in the playbook that they aren’t even aware of right now. So, I think that’s one of the biggest challenges.”
I’m trying to temper my expectations for Hill because of what we’ve seen from these players in the past. Things change when the pads come on ... and the pads are coming on Monday for the first time.