If you’ve come out to Kansas City Chiefs training camp you’ve probably noticed No. 81 out there. No, it’s not Jason Avant. It’s rookie Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs fifth round pick this year.
It was easy to predict Hill would be a training camp star. We saw it with Dexter McCluster and we saw it with De’Anthony Thomas. They’re similar players so we could’ve predicted Hill would look great.
The question is, will Hill’s training camp success translate to games?
More: Tyreek's ridiculous cut
"No doubt, there’s no doubt about it," Nagy said. "The biggest part of coming into this offense as a wide receiver is the mentality of being able to handle the volume of the reps that we have, the formations, the personnel, how things adjust. He’s done it so far."
There’s a lot to learn. If you know the offense, you can play fast without thinking. Nagy says that will be the key as they get deeper into the playbook.
"We’re halfway through our installs," Nagy continued, "as the volume continues to grow is he going to continue to play fast or is it going to catch him. We’ll see where that goes."
Smaller players have trouble getting off press coverage so the Chiefs have to scheme him open. Nagy said they didn’t know if Hill could beat press coverage until he got to camp.
"He’s a little smaller so you have to move him around a little bit and get some free access for him," Nagy said. "When someone wants to come up and press him and play some bump and run, he does have the ability to beat press. He’s shown that. That’s a benefit for him. We try to do our best at moving him around."
Some of this sounds like something we would’ve written about De’Anthony Thomas a couple years ago. They’re similar players but looking at them on the field it’s clear that Hill is bigger.
"There’s a lot of similarities as far as the size, their speed and their route running," Nagy said of DAT and Hill. "With De’Anthony he has the advantage of being here in this offense and being able to get up here and play fast. Then with Tyreek he’s come in here and done a great job of coming here and picking up the volume that we have with this offense and play fast as well. I think you can see that. They’re both special talents."
They may both be special talents but they’re also similar talents, which makes you wonder if they’re competing for one roster spot.