KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs traded away a unicorn in Tyreek Hill.
Few players in NFL history have ever had his combination of track-star speed and elite ball-tracking skills on deep throws.
He can take the top off defenses or turn short passes into explosive plays by outrunning angles taken by flailing defenders at an incredible rate.
Hill’s mere presence on the field commands the attention of opposing defenses, altering how teams have defended the Chiefs in recent years.
Now, it’ll be up to Kansas City and coach Andy Reid to adjust. Just don’t expect a wild overhaul.
“I don’t think it will be significantly different,” Reid said. “It will be similar to what we did in the games that Tyreek couldn’t play in. There’s certain things that he did really well that we’ll have people try to fill in those spots without forcing anything. Normally, what we do is we try to play to the players’ strengths the best we can. We’ll see with some of the new guys what they can do, and we’ll work around that.”
The cupboard isn’t exactly bare — even after trading away Hill and two other veteran wide receivers, Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson, via free agency.
Tight end Travis Kelce remains a dynamic weapon, Mecole Hardman Jr. is coming off the best season of his three-year career, and former All-Pro Josh Gordon will get a full off-season to learn the scheme in hopes of making an impact.
Kansas City also added a pair of veteran receivers with proven production and playoff experience in Marquez Valdes-Scantling and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
“It’s definitely going to be different in a sense, but I feel like we still have a strong foundation of guys that have been here over the last few years,” All-Pro quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “We’ll have to find production in different ways than we did last year, because Tyreek was such a big part of our offense, but I think you’ve seen in games, when we haven’t had Tyreek or we haven’t had certain people, other guys have stepped up and made plays happen. I expect that to happen this year as well.”
Valdes-Scantling hasn’t consistently put up production at Hill’s level, but he’s a deep threat and adds a new dimension to the offense with his 6-foot-4 frame.
Smith-Schuster figures to provide the kind of tough-minded possession receiver the Chiefs have lacked since Sammy Watkins’ departure, providing an option in the slot and outside with an ability to work in traffic underneath.
“I think it’s a great combination for all three of us, honestly,” Hardman said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how they go through training camp and adjust to the offense and get the playbook down. Once they get the playbook and how we run things, they’re going to come into their own, for sure.”
Kansas City also may add more pieces to the wide-receiver room through the draft.
RELATED | Nick Jacobs: 2022 NFL Draft big board
RELATED | Nick Jacobs: Chiefs mock draft, 1.0
RELATED | Nick Jacobs: Chiefs mock draft, 2.0
RELATED | Tod Palmer: Chiefs 7-round mock draft
“You try to take those redeeming qualities and exploit them the best you can,” Reid said. “That’s what we’ll do. It ends up being maybe a little different flair than what we’ve had in the past.”
Mahomes and the Chiefs’ pass-catchers have been working out for a few weeks together in Texas, getting familiar with one another on and off the field.
Kelce, Hardman, Gordon, Valdes-Scantling and Smith-Schuster are among those who have worked out with Mahomes along with other skill players, including free-agent running back addition Ronald Jones.
Those informal gatherings prompted Reid to open the off-season program with virtual meetings. NFL rules don’t allow for on-field coaching, so remote meetings allowed Mahomes to keep working out on his own with the rebuilt receiving corps.
“The biggest thing that you see, as I’ve thrown to all these guys really, is that we have a lot of size in the receiving room that we haven’t necessarily had in the past,” Mahomes said. “Having that size will be different, but I’m excited for it. I think it will be useful for us during the season.”
To account for Hill and Kelce, who were the primary threats in Kansas City’s passing game the last few seasons, opposing defenses favored shell coverages on first and second downs then brought on extra defensive backs and switched to man coverage with a spy on Mahomes on third downs.
But with the targets likely to be spread around more — Hill and Kelce accounted for 293 targets, or nearly 46% of all pass attempts — defenses may have to come up with a new gameplan.
“I’m very interested to see how defenses are going to cover us in general,” Mahomes said. “A lot of that shell stuff was because of the speed we had on the outside. This year, we still have that speed still with guys like Valdes-Scantling and Mecole, but we also have bigger guys that can catch it over the middle with Travis obviously and JuJu and all these guys."
"We have a nice mixture of speed and size, which I think will force defenses to try to not only play those deep coverages but come up and play some man, too. I think we’ll have a different variety for them. They won’t know exactly where the ball is going every single play ... because we have so many different guys who can make plays on this offense,” he said.
