After he was asked about 20 questions about the Marcus Peters suspension on Wednesday, Andy Reid was asked about Tyreek Hill’s development and I’m glad he talked about it.
Tyreek doesn’t get enough credit for his transition to a full-time receiver. He’s more than just a fast player; he has actual receiver skills and can produce: 60 catches for 911 yards on the year.
“It’s more than just running fast,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid told the KC media on Wednesday. “We have a lot of fast players in the National Football League, but it’s more than that.
“It’s his ability to track the ball, set things up when the ball is in the air, to maintain your speed. Other guys when the ball is in the air that inside arm drops, it cuts their speed down three quarters and defensive backs can catch back up and roll. He’s able to maintain his speed through these routes and it’s not always on the ultimate angle that we’re asking him to do it on so he’s really got to drive the chin to the shoulder, keep the arm at the square and run fast. All those things, those fundamentals, he’s very good at that.”
The thing I didn’t realize is he has legitimate ball skills. There was a catch on the sidelines (where he was barely out of bounds) that really highlighted his ability to track the ball and bring it in. That’s not natural for everyone but it seems to be for him. Tyreek has been so spectacular scoring in a variety of ways that I don’t think we’ve appreciated that he is actually making the transition to No. 1 receiver.