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The Kansas City Chiefs shocked the NFL world last week when they elected to trade Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. As the Chiefs faced a notable contract extension dilemma with Hill, they ended up throwing in the towel on such talks and opted to part ways with him after six total seasons.
The trade came as a surprise to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but he was not blindsided by the move. As he told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Chiefs front office kept him in the loop regarding Hill’s standing with the team and overall, the one-time NFL MVP winner is pleased to see his now-former teammate receive a much-deserved, hefty payday.
“It more surprised me whenever it got to the point where we were really considering trading him,” Mahomes said. “They kept me updated the entire time; I knew the extension talks were going on. And then I knew when he got the permission to seek to get traded. But I mean, still, I played my entire career with Tyreek, so definitely, there was a little bit of shock when he got traded.
“At the same time, they kept me involved the entire process, and I know that we made a tremendous effort to try to keep him in Kansas City. Tyreek, he’s such a tremendous player, he got what he deserved. I’m happy for him. And he’s at a place where he has a home and he’s closer to family and stuff. So I’m very happy for him. We had to move forward.”
As Mahomes touched on, there were extension talks between Hill and Chiefs team officials. Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, revealed last week that he jump-started such discussions with the team after last season. Talks between the two sides were going “slowly,” and discussions on this matter changed course following Davante Adams’ trade to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Rosenhaus noted that Adams’ blockbuster move to the Raiders “flipped everything upside down,” as he aspired to make his client the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL today. In the end, he succeeded, as the Dolphins wound up coming to terms with Hill on a grand four-year, $120 million extension deal.
Mahomes understood the business side of this matter, and he knew that from there, the Chiefs needed to get as much in return as possible for Hill.
“We had to move on and try to get as much as we could for him and try to build that receiving room again,” Mahomes said. “And do it to where we have the ability to go out there and compete every single week, which I trust Brett Veach and coach [Andy] Reid will do.”
Hill capped off his run with the Chiefs after 91 regular season games played over six seasons, where he emerged as a valuable downfield threat for Mahomes. He recorded an astounding 35 30-plus receiving yard touchdowns while with Kansas City.
Mahomes will now call upon Mecole Hardman, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling to be his top wide receiver options for the 2022 season. In the big picture, he likely will not expect any of them to fully replace Hill’s production and also mirror his unique style of play as a wideout, but it sure would be crucial if they can all become reliable, go-to targets for him in the red zone over the course of the upcoming campaign.