Tyreek Hill has become a bit of a secret weapon for the Kansas City Chiefs special teams unit.
In his rookie season back in 2016, Hill was named First-Team All-Pro as a return specialist after having returned 14 kick returns for 384 yards and a score, and 39 punt returns for 592 yards and two scores. As his role within the Chiefs’ offense grew, his role on special teams lessened. It diminished so much that Hill has hardly ever fielded any punts over the past two seasons.
While Hill may no longer appear on the depth chart at punt or kick returner, Dave Toub has always maintained that the team could utilize Hill in certain moments. During Sunday’s overtime thriller against the Buffalo Bills, one of those moments came up.
“I mean if we’re in a situation like we’re in now, win or go home,” Toub explained. “Mecole (Hardman) was a little banged up too. He got a little banged up, his wrist was hurting him a little bit, so it was an easy decision to put (Tyreek Hill) in there. He’s so dangerous that he just puts so much pressure on the punt team and the fact that we made them kick two and that was huge. Anytime we have a situation like that, and we don’t get a big one on the first one, we want to put the punt team back there to cover again because it’s so hard to cover two kicks, so you have that advantage too. Then you have Tyreek back there with the whole crowd chanting ‘Tyreek, Tyreek, Tyreek’, I mean it’s a tough situation for a punt team to be in.”
Hill’s 45-yard punt return against the Bills enabled the team to extend their lead to five points in the third quarter. Those points made all the difference in the team’s overtime win.
Hardman remains on the injury report for the Chiefs, and while he’s been a full participant in practice, this type of game is exactly why Toub continues to work Hill on the special teams unit in practice. Hill puts a type of pressure on a punt coverage unit that no other player does.
“We could use him again,” Toub said. “In this situation, we got to win this game so we got to put our best players on the field, we’re going to get our best guys out there and every down can win the game for us. Just take a look at Green Bay and how important special teams was in that game and our game as well. Special teams comes up big in these tight games when you have to win.”
