Is the Sky the Limit For This WR Whose First Year Looked A Lot Like Tyreek Hill’s Rookie Season?

Kevin Szafraniec
April 21, 2025

Due to off-the-field issues, Tyreek Hill was not selected until the fifth round of the 2016 draft. If based solely on attributes, he would have easily come off of the board in one of the first two rounds.

Hill’s talent was never in doubt, and he proved it by putting up more than 200 PPR points and finishing as the PPR WR18 during his rookie year in Kansas City.

Hill had to earn his way onto the field, but his explosiveness proved to be too much for him to stay on the sidelines for long. As the season progressed, his usage increased significantly, serving as both a rusher and a receiver. Hill was used largely on manufactured touches, as his 83 targets came at a shallow aDOT of 7.6 yards, while he was also given 24 carries out of the backfield.

Hill took a step forward in his second season, earning 105 targets, improving his aDOT to 11.6 yards, and finishing as the WR8. After Patrick Mahomes took over as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback in 2018, he and Hill blew the doors off the NFL with 334.0 PPR points and an overall WR2 finish in their first season together. Since then, Hill has not looked back and has been arguably the most dominant wide receiver of the past decade.

With such lofty heights, it is difficult to project any young WR to match Hill’s career production. However, there is one 2024 rookie who matches up well with what Hill was able to do in his rookie season. After a late-season surge in 2024, will this young speedster see his role evolve and match what Hill was able to accomplish in his second season?

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Kevin Szafraniec

Full-time Cat Dad, Sneakerhead, Record Collector, LOTR Fanboy, and Jeopardy Enthusiast. Fantasy football writer and beatmaker in my free time. Follow me on X and Bluesky @thecatdadff

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