"None of those guys are number one wide receivers" - NFL analyst skeptical of Chiefs' attempts to replace Tyreek Hill
Tyreek Hill wasn't the only move the Kansas City Chiefs made at wide receiver this offseason. It is unclear whether the team knew they were going to have to deal Hill earlier this offseason, but Juju Smith-Schuster was signed in the shadow of the trade. After Hill's exit, the team also signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Most are saying the loss of the wide receiver will be felt, including NFL analyst Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones-Drew believes that the Chiefs may not have done enough to replace Hill. Here's what he had to say:
“Well, Tom, I'm never gonna put anything past Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy, and what they're doing there with the Chiefs, but I'll say this. Neither of those guys that we mentioned, Juju Smith Schuster, Mecole Hardman, or MVS have been number one wide receivers or performed as such."
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Jones-Drew continued, saying that now the Chiefs don't have a wide receiver who can take over a game like Hill could:
"And so that's the problem. When you get in big games, the Buffalo Bills games, we always go back to the playoffs, who kind of took that game over? Tyreek Hill. So you have to have a number one wide receiver to be able to do that. If you look at Davante Adams in Green Bay, he was taking games over when they needed him to."
Jones-Drew continued on, saying he wasn't impressed by what he's seen out of their new wide receiver room:
"You have to have a guy like that, but none of these guys have done it. JuJu, they tried it in Pittsburgh, and it didn't work out. Mecole Hardman, we're still waiting for him to explode. He's shown spurts of it, but never consistently. And MVS only played 11 games. So now, who can you count on, like Kyle said, when the game is on the line?"
Jones-Drew went on to point to an instance that will not be returning this season for the team:
"And I'll go back to the last drive before they kicked the field goal. They threw a quick bubble screen to Tyreek Hill, and he got like 20 yards in 40 seconds. Or excuse me, probably like 20 yards in like two seconds, and he slid down, they called timeout."
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In the end, he said he has his doubts about the Chiefs' personnel, but he still has a lot of faith in Andy Reid:
"Who's gonna be the guy that you're gonna count on to make that big-time play in the game? And granted, I don't know, but maybe one of these guys show up. Maybe you got the guys to do it."
That said, players are a key component of success in the NFL. A lack of players leads to a lack of wins. Jones-Drew went on to say the same:
"But this game has always been about the players. And when you have a terrific one like Tyreek Hill? It's hard to replace them. The same way Green Bay is going to struggle replacing Davante Adams."
Who are Tyreek Hill's new replacements?
Marquez Valdes-Scatling and Juju Smith-Schuster are stepping in to replace the wide receiver. Valdes-Scantling was a member of the Green Bay Packers for the entirety of his NFL career. The wide receiver's best season of his four-year career was in 2020 when he earned 690 yards and six touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Juju Smith-Schuster had 111 receptions for 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns in his best season. However, his best season came back in 2018, and he hasn't been the same since. His next-best season was in 2020, when he caught 97 passes for 831 yards and nine touchdowns.