In the span of a week, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes went from having Tyreek Hill as his top receiver to watching him sign a massive deal with the Miami Dolphins.
The front office quickly moved to replace Hill with Marquez Valdes-Scantling, but the talent disparity between the two is massive. Or at least it has been up to this point.
Hill recorded more receiving touchdowns in 2020 alone than Valdes-Scantling has throughout his entire career. Last year, he caught six more scores. The gap there is real and noticeable.
This week, Mahomes got talked about his feelings on Hill’s departure and how everything ultimately went down.
“It more surprised me whenever it got to the point where we were really considering trading him,” Mahomes told Sports Illustrated on Wednesday.
That said, Mahomes maintained that he was in the loop on what was happening the entire time.
“They kept me updated the entire time; I knew the extension talks were going on,” he said.
“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.
“We had to move on and try to get as much as we could for him and try to build that receiving room again. 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 ended up getting a five-year, $142.5 million contract from the Dolphins. Mahomes understands that business is business, and genuinely seems happy for his now-former teammate.
“I know that we made a tremendous effort to try to keep him in Kansas City,” Mahomes said. “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.”
The fact that Kansas City emerged with five draft picks from Miami for Hill, including a 2022 first-rounder, obviously left a sweet taste in Mahomes’ mouth.
It will be fascinating to see who ultimately comes out of this trade feeling better. Catching passes from Mahomes is a lot different than doing so from Tua Tagovailoa. That said, Mahomes also struggled at times this year. And losing his best wide receiver won’t help matters any.
At the very least, Kansas City made things easier on its star quarterback by keeping open lines of communication.
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