Tyreek Hill hasn’t forgotten that ‘return specialist’ label. It seems ridiculous now.
Tyreek Hill backtracked into the end zone, a well-deserved cruise, and then launched into a signature back-flip. Missed the landing, though. He didn’t get quite enough air, and his knees — not his feet — absorbed the contact as he hit the ground.
So it wasn’t entirely a perfect quarter.
But pretty picturesque. In fact, the back-flip quasi-mishap provided the only moment in which he wasn’t precisely in sync.
Hill produced the best quarter the league has seen in more than a decade, an extension of a season that is turning into the most productive of his five-year career. By its conclusion, Hill had turned to the Tampa Bay crowd and declared, “Help is on the way,” a tribute to former tight end Shannon Sharpe.
Nope. Instead, one of the league’s most distinctive matchup problems — a player unique to his peers — has his masterpiece.
Hill totaled 13 catches, 269 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday’s 27-24 win against the Buccaneers, but he spent the first quarter in particular torching the Tampa Bay secondary to the point of prompting a player-coach argument on the sideline. In those initial 15 minutes alone, Hill had seven catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns, including a 75-yarder that is the Chiefs’ longest pass play this season.
“It was man coverage with no one over the top,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “We don’t get that a lot, especially with that guy and his ability. Whenever we do, we try to take advantage of it.”
Again and again. Hill added a 44-yard touchdown only five minutes after his first, punctuating a 17-0 lead. He is only the third player since 1980 to post more than 200 receiving yards in a quarter and he’s the first since Buffalo’s Lee Evans did it in 2006.
That it comes in this season — one in which he has garnered more attention than ever before — displays the maturation since his rookie season in 2016, one in which he was thought of as more of a trick-play specialty.
Or, as Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey put it in 2018, a return specialist.
Asked about being single covered so often Sunday, Hill quipped, “Obviously I’m a return specialist, so I’m going to see a lot of single coverage throughout the whole game.”
He’s evidently plenty more. A week ago, after 102 yards and a touchdown against the Raiders, Hill tweeted, “Am I a number 1 yet? Sheesh.”
A tone was set in the season opener, with the Houston Texans playing their safeties in a deep shell to prevent Hill’s speed from overtaking a game. He found other ways, still catching five passes and a touchdown.
The defensive style has remained. And so has the production.
Quietly? Hill has still managed to find a way to disrupt and tear up game plans. He still leads the NFL with 13 touchdowns, even if the majority haven’t come on deep bombs.
But when a team does offer him a crease — when a single safety forgets him or elects to shade toward tight end Travis Kelce instead — Hill reminds of his top trait.
That speed.
On his initial score, Mahomes looked to his left, and Tampa Bay safety Antoine Winfield followed his eyes. For just a moment. But for long enough. Hill ran a double move on the opposite sideline and sped by his man. Mahomes unleashed a pass that traveled 61.6 yards in the air — the longest of his career — into Hill’s arms.
Gone.
“I was like, you know what, I feel like Pat is going to throw this ball about 70 yards, so I’m going to have to really stretch out here,” Hill said.
On his second score, Hill beat Carlton Davis for a 44-yard touchdown — triggering the back-flip and an argument between Davis and an assistant coach. The discussion prompted animation but apparently no answers.
Hill beat Davis again in the third quarter for a 20-yard score, hauling in a pass squeezed neatly into his arms.
“Today was fun. Today was great. Today was competitive for me,” Hill said. “Carlton Davis is definitely a good player. I’ve said that numerous times. I’ve watched film of him the whole season. He’s been a baller. I was just real excited for the matchup.”
Hill finished with 269 yards, tied for the 15th most in a game and just 40 shy of Stephone Paige’s single-game franchise record of 309. The Rams’ Flipper Anderson holds the NFL record: 336 yards.
That record set in 1989 still stands. For at least one more week.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 6:42 PM.