Tyreek Hill: 'I tried my best' to stay with Chiefs, but Davante Adams' deal changed talks

Davante Adams‘ desire to reunite with Derek Carr not only changed the Packers’ wide receiver situation; it directly affected another Super Bowl contender’s aerial corps. Tyreek Hill went from negotiating a Chiefs extension in early March to being dealt to the Dolphins for five picks three weeks later.

The $30M-per-year contract Miami authorized came after Kansas City balked at a deal similar to Adams’. Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said on the receiver’s first episode of his "It Needed To Be Said" podcast the Hill-Chiefs talks changed after Adams inked his $28M-AAV Raiders deal. Shortly after the Adams extension, Rosenhaus “put pressure on the Chiefs” to hammer out an Adams-style accord, with the agent calling his client a superior player to the two-time Packers All-Pro.

“If they didn’t want to do that type of deal, then we would get them a blockbuster trade,” Rosenhaus said, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I flat out told them that I felt like I could talk to teams around the league and bring a bunch of — bring great compensation. And I think the Chiefs initially wanted to challenge us and see what we could get from other teams contractually and what we could also get compensation-wise.”

Hill said he told Andy Reid he was not asking the Chiefs to top Adams’ Raiders contract, indicating that a pact in the $25M- or $26M-per-year range would be sufficient. Even after the Chiefs gave Rosenhaus permission to talk trades, which led to Jets and Dolphins offers, Reid asked Hill if he wanted to stay in Kansas City. Although Hill said he did, Rosenhaus indicated during the podcast the Chiefs were “millions of dollars” short of the new asking price.

The Chiefs sent Hill to the Dolphins for five picks — including Miami’s first- and second-rounders this year — and the historically dominant deep threat signed a four-year, $120M extension. While that contract is back-loaded, with A.J. Brown‘s $56M fully guaranteed figure soon surpassing Hill’s $52M, only Aaron Donald and a handful of quarterbacks top Hill’s $30M AAV.

“I tried my best,” Hill said of his effort to stay in Kansas City. “I talked to the big man, Andy Reid. I talked to the quarterback. I’m like, ‘Look, can we make something happen? Can we make something happen? Can the guaranteed money make sense to me? Can it make sense to my family, please?”

The ugly off-field baggage Hill carried into the league and the 2019 child-abuse allegation — which did not lead to a suspension — that threatened his place with the Chiefs allowed for an $18M-per-year extension on a team-friendly structure ahead of the ’19 season. Hill outplayed the contract by playing an essential role on back-to-back Super Bowl-qualifying teams and producing 1,200-yard receiving seasons in 2020 and ’21. The 28-year-old speed merchant will now attempt to stay in top form away from Reid and Patrick Mahomes, while the Chiefs will attempt to replace their star wideout with a group effort involving JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore.