After the Chiefs lost Tyreek Hill last offseason, Patrick Mahomes won league MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and the Lombardi Trophy. Coincidence? Probably not.
When the Kansas City Chiefs decided not to re-sign star wideout Tyreek Hill, many around the league considered them to be out of Super Bowl contention in 2022. Turns out, the Chiefs may have been onto something.
In an illuminating article by The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz, Kansas City wide receivers coach Joe Bleymaier revealed that it was “liberating” to scheme the offense without Tyreek Hill.
Bleymaier explained that losing Hill allowed Kansas City’s staff to “conceptualize downfield concepts where we could incorporate all different guys from perhaps different sides of the formation.”
In terms of tangible consequences, Hill’s absence left a void that the Chiefs’ diverse and scrappy receiver unit somehow managed to fill in 2022.
In the 2021 season, the KC offense produced 4,791 yards in the air with Hill leading as the No. 1 receiver. This past season, the Chiefs produced 5,000-plus yards in the air with eight different receivers recording 200 or more yards.
Part of the Chiefs’ sustainable offensive efficiency stems from Patrick Mahomes, but a part of it also comes from opponents changing up their defensive coverages.
Chiefs, the Super Bowl LVII champions, are thriving in the wake of Tyreek Hill’s departure
As The Ringer’s Ruiz points out, Mahomes was faced with far more soft zone coverages in 2021 than in 2022. Opponents chose more often to man-mark Chiefs’ receivers this past season, and Mahomes in turn torched victims with a league leading 74.8 total EPA against man coverage.
Despite losing the best deep threat in the league in Tyreek Hill, Mahomes has continued to thrive by leaning on his trustiest target, Travis Kelce, along with a ragtag group of mid-level outside targets.
In 2022, the KC offense sagged in the big plays department, yet the newcomers in the wide receiver unit forced Mahomes become a better quarterback overall. Rather than constantly rely on the fail-safe option of throwing to Hill, Mahomes expanded his passing game and suddenly became much harder to defend.
There’s no question that a player like Hill could have added an extra-dangerous edge to the Chiefs’ passing attack, but there’s also no question that the Chiefs’ current receiving corps, as jumbled as it is, helped Mahomes win his second Super Bowl.
Kadarius Toney’s crazy punt return, JuJu Smith-Schuster’s effective work in short yardage situations, Skyy Moore’s clever routes to get himself open in the end zone — everyone chipped in and did their part.
With Hill, the Chiefs’ offense was growing stale. With everybody else, the offense is arguably unstoppable.
