Our own Kent Swanson wrote a piece over the weekend on what’s at stake with Tyreek Hill’s development with the Kansas City Chiefs. The second point he highlighted was how Travis Kelce can benefit from Hill’s speed. Great timing by Kent because that very night we went out and saw a perfect example of how Tyreek can help Kelce.
We all remember Kelce’s 36-yard catch early in the Chiefs preseason game on Saturday night in Cincinnati. Alex dropped it perfectly into his hands between two defenders.
NFL analyst Brian Baldinger highlighted how the Bengals defended on this play:
.@Chiefs wr Tyreek Hill's speed changes the way teams try to defend pic.twitter.com/8OiaFQSrav
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 20, 2017
“I’d like to show you an example of what speed does to defenses,” Baldinger says in the video. “That’s Tyreek Hill in the circle. Down here in the middle of the field is Shawn Williams, he’s the free safety for the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Watch what they do pre-snap to try to help defend Tyreek Hill. They’re going to run basically a shift to the other side of the field where Shawn Williams is really in position to help defend the speed of Tyreek Hill, opening up the seam for Travis Kelce, which is exactly what Kansas City sees.
“This is exactly what Alex Smith is going to exploit. Travis Kelce against (LB) Kevin Minter with basically no free safety in the middle of the field. It’s pitch and catch. Drop the ball in the bucket. 36-yard completion. Speed changes the way teams defend.”