Examining The Tyreek Hill Trade And The Repercussions

By now we have all heard about the Tyreek Hill trade that shocked the NFL community. How could you have missed it? Hill is arguably the most electric wide receiver that we have in the league today and he was dealt out of nowhere. For those of you that may not be in the loop, Hill was sent over to the Miami Dolphins last week. Shortly after the trade was made public, it was announced that Tyreek would be inking a four-year, $120 million extension. Along with that extension came $72.2 million guaranteed. So, I guess it’s safe to say that he got himself paid for the trade. 

When everybody started to wonder why this even happened in the first place, contract talks seem to be the reason. Some sources say that after Hill caught wind of the massive deal that Christian Kirk signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he demanded a bit higher of a price. The Kansas City Chiefs offered enough to make him a top-three paid wideout in football, but he declined in the hopes that he would receive more per year. The Chiefs instantly knew that things wouldn’t be working out, so they let him seek a trade. The final options came down to the Dolphins and the New York Jets. Although, Hill stated that the Jets weren’t even a thought in his mind despite them giving the Chiefs a trade offer.  

His quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, was also surprised by the deal. As you might expect, reporters flooded to Mahomes to catch his thought on the trade. He responded by saying, “It more surprised me whenever it got to the point where we were really considering trading him. They kept me updated the entire time. I knew the extension talks were going on. 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.”  

As for the entire AFC West division, this Hill trade shakes everything up. The number one weapon for Mahomes in the passing game outside of Travis Kelce is now out of the division completely. On most occasions, a deal like this would normally see the Chiefs sitting atop the division anyways. However, the AFC West got absolutely loaded. The Denver Broncos added Russell Wilson and Randy Gregory. The Las Vegas Raiders nabbed Chandler Jones and Davante Adams. Then the Los Angeles Chargers swiped up J.C. Jackson and Khalil Mack. There is serious star talent over in the division and the AFC conference as a whole. The Hill trade did benefit Kansas City in terms of draft compensation, but the deal might have come at a really costly time. Could this actually be the last season we see the Chiefs winning the division? Or maybe they will continue to thrive even without Tyreek on the roster and prove that Mahomes is a quarterback that can win with anybody. We will have to just wait and see.