Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid and QB Patrick Mahomes responded to recent comments made by Tyreek Hill in the debut of his podcast, “It Needed To Be Said.”
During the first episode of the podcast, Hill was critical of both Mahomes and his role within the Chiefs’ offense during the 2021 NFL season. Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of the team’s mandatory minicamp, Mahomes said he was taken aback by the comments.
“I mean, I’m surprised a little just because I feel like we love Tyreek (Hill) here,” Mahomes told reporters. “We always loved him, we still love him. I saw him out at Formula 1 in Miami and everything like that. But I’m sure it had something to do with getting his podcast some (hype) and get it rolling.”
Despite some disparaging words, Mahomes explained there is no love lost between him and his former receiver. Hill made comments suggesting that Mahomes would struggle without him, but the star quarterback doesn’t seem to be too worried about how the offense will function without Hill.
“Definitely, I still love Tyreek,” Mahomes said. “He’s a one-of-a-kind player, but as you know, in Coach Reid’s offense, it takes the whole team. This offense was rolling before I got here — this offense was rolling when I was a young Cowboys fan watching the Eagles beat up on the Cowboys. It’s an offense that is more than one player and that includes myself.”
Mahomes hasn’t talked to Hill since the podcast came out, but said when he saw him at Formula 1 in Miami back in May everything seemed fine. He also has a theory about why Hill said what he said on his podcast.
“It’s something where I’m sure he’s trying to show he loves where he’s at in Miami,” Mahomes surmised. “He loves his teammates. But at the end of the day, it’s just going out there and playing football. You kind of let other people talk about who is the best and other type of stuff. You just want to go out there and win football games.”
There was a lot of criticism of Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa stemming from a video posted on the Miami Twitter account of Tagovailoa throwing a pass to Hill. It seems that Mahomes feels Hill was coming to the defense of his teammate amid criticism, more than seeking to throw mud at his former team.
As for the comments comparing the accuracy between Tagovailoa and Mahomes, the former league MVP says he will let his performance and success on the field do the talking.
“It doesn’t get to me at all,” Mahomes said. “As long as we’re winning football games and we’re putting up points, I think I’m doing my job the right way. It doesn’t have to be the best accuracy and completion percentage in the world. So long as we’re scoring touchdowns and winning Super Bowls, I’ll take it.”
Mahomes seemed to suggest that Hill’s comments on being underutilized — when he led the team with a career-high 111 catches — were misconstrued. He also said that those concerns from Hill were never brought to his or anyone else’s attention during the course of the season.
“Definitely new in the sense of how it’s seen on the podcast,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, when you’re the competitor that he is — that’s the thing that I love about Tyreek and still love — is that he wants to win. I feel like with the coverages that we’re getting, the defenses were really accounting for him, so we had to go other places. But when he’s a competitor like that, you want to have a chance to impact the game, so I know he wanted to get the ball as much as possible so he could help us win. It wasn’t a selfish thing. We were winning football games, especially at the end of the season, so I didn’t think he really kind of brought that to our attention.”
Reid kept his response to Hill’s podcast comments brief, emphasizing again that there is no love lost between the organization and the former receiver.
“I love Tyreek (Hill),” Reid said. “He’s a good kid. We think the world of him.”
Both Reid and Mahomes recognize that it’s time to put their best foot forward without Hill. Hopefully, the former Chiefs receiver will follow suit and put his best foot forward with the Dolphins.
“Now we just kind of move on,” Mahomes said. “And keep going with the guys we have here and try to keep winning football games.”
