Chargers back Melvin Gordon says Tyreek Hill is one of the best in the AFC West

This isn’t something you see every day.

When two teams are getting ready to square off in an NFL game, you don’t normally see a player from one team publish an article praising a player from the other team.

It’s usually very much the other way around.

But that’s exactly what happened on Friday, as San Diego Chargers running back Melvin Gordon published an article on The Players Tribune in which he identifies Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill as one of the seven best players in the AFC West.

Gordon lists Hill as the sixth-best player in the division, and recalls the time Hill returned a Chargers punt 96 yards for a touchdown — he even includes video of the play — and says that in that moment, he knew Hill was “the real deal.”

I looked around at the other guys on the sideline, and nobody said anything. Because no words needed to be said. We all saw it. We were all just like, Wow……

He’s just so fast, man. And if you don’t lock him up before he gets going, it’s over. He’s gone. Like there are a lot of fast guys in the league. But most guys got straight-line speed, you know? They can’t really make moves without slowing down. Tyreek will be running full speed — blazing speed — and then make a cut or throw a juke and make somebody miss, without even slowing down. Not a lot of people can do that.

Gordon also lists former Chief Derrick Johnson — now with the Oakland Raiders — as the seventh-best player in the AFC.

Derrick Johnson is real, man. He can wreck a play and he’s real smart and calculated in his approach, and when he gets his hands on you … man, he’s a beast. It’s a tough tackle to break.

And now he’s staying in the division with the Raiders?

I guess I still gotta see him twice a year.

Damn.

Naturally, Gordon has three fellow Chargers at the top of his list — wide receiver Keenan Allen, defensive end Melvin Ingram and defensive back Casey Heyward.

Gordon says he thinks the current Chargers team is better than it has been since he arrived.

Now of course I’m biased, but, honestly, I think that this year we have the most talented roster we’ve had since I’ve been here. We’re a lot closer to the team that closed out last season 9–3 than the one that started off 0–4, I can tell you that. I could have filled this whole list with Chargers, good as we got it right now. But I wanted to be fair, you know? Spread some love around the division.

We thank you for your courtesy, Melvin. See you on Sunday.