Patrick Mahomes on Tyreek Hill’s comments: ‘I’m a little surprised’

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the brouhaha former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill kicked up earlier this month when he said on his new podcast that Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was a more accurate passer than Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

As expected, social media was lit aflame with discourse over Hill's outlandish claims. And this wasn't the only bomb that Hill dropped in his debut podcast.

Hill's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, also insinuated that the Chiefs purposely suppressed Hill's stats in 2021 to keep his price down so they could extend him at a lower dollar amount. According to Rosenhaus, this was part of the reason why Hill requested a trade. Hill, for his part, denied the claims, but the fact remains that they were made by his camp.

Rosenhaus and Hill's comments were covered by our own Pete Sweeney at the time they were made.

As our Brandon Kiley quickly mentioned on Twitter, Hill finished the season with 160 targets (seventh in the NFL) and 111 receptions (third in the NFL). He also finished with 10 or more targets in four of the last seven games he played as a Chiefs receiver (including the postseason). In two of the games without 10 or more targets, he played in 42% of offensive snaps or less.

It has to be said: the idea that head coach Andy Reid or quarterback Patrick Mahomes colluding to surpress Hill’s stats is outright preposterous. The Chiefs have mantained they wanted to keep Hill until the wide receiver market exploded, upon which they changed plans in favor of team flexibility.

Up until now, Mahomes has been silent on the issue, but that all changed on Thursday afternoon. He spoke on the matter for the first time at the podium following mandatory minicamp.

"I'm a little surprised," said Mahomes. "We love Tyreek here. We've always loved him, and we still love him."

Mahomes went on to say that Hill had never mentioned any of his frustrations to him — including when the two spoke face to face last month.

"I talked to him at Formula 1 in Miami in May and everything seemed fine," claimed Mahomes.

Doing his best to keep it classy, Mahomes said that Hill was making these declarations to generate buzz around his podcast.

"I'm sure it had some to do with trying to get his podcast rolling," he said.

When he was asked whether he thought Hill's stats were suppressed, Mahomes defended head coach Andy Reid's offense, saying that the way the Chiefs play football isn't centered around any one specific player.

"Tyreek is a one-of-a-kind player," admitted Mahomes. "But as you know, in coach Reid's offense, it takes the whole team. This offense was rolling before I got here. This offense was rolling when I was a young Dallas Cowboys fan watching the Philidelphia Eagles beat up on the Cowboys. It's an offense that's more than one player, and that includes myself.

"The thing that I love about Tyreek is that he wants to win, and I feel like with the coverages that we were getting. Defenses were accounting for him, and so we had to go other places."

It's expected for playmakers to want the ball in their hands, but as Mahomes noted, the team's success has to come before personal accomplishments.

"We were winning football games," noted Mahomes, "especially at the end of the season."

As for how Hill's statements affect Mahomes personally, the Chiefs quarterback said that Hill was just trying to endear himself to a new fanbase.

"He's trying to show that he loves where he's at in Miami. He loves his teammates," he said.

Mahomes could care less about who you think the better or more accurate quarterback is — to him, it's all white noise.

"It doesn't get to me at all," said Mahomes. "At the end of the day, it's just going out there and playing football. You let other people talk about who's the best and all that different type of stuff.

"As long as we're in football games and we're putting up points, I think I'm doing my job the right way. I don't have to have the best accuracy and the best completion percentage in the world. As long as we're scoring touchdowns and winning Super Bowls, I'll take it."

Since 2018, Mahomes leads all quarterbacks in the NFL in wins with 49. The Chiefs have won six straight AFC West titles and have appeared in four straight AFC championship games.

Nobody does it better when it comes to winning, and that's all Mahomes cares about.