KANSAS CITY CHIEFS- PATRICK MAHOMES ‘SURPRISED’ ABOUT TYREEK HILL’S ACCURACY REMARKS.
Tyreek Hill said Tua Tagovailoa was more accurate than Patrick Mahomes.
Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes responded to criticism Thursday about his accuracy from former teammate Tyreek Hill.
Hill, who was traded to the Miami Dolphins, said in a recent episode of his podcast that current Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was more accurate than the Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
Mahomes was asked about the remarks in his press availability.
“I’m surprised a little just because I feel like we love Tyreek here, we’ve 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 kind of had to do with trying to get his podcast some stuff and get it rolling, but 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. I mean, the offense was rolling before I got here. His offense was rolling when I was a young Cowboys fan watching the Eagles beat up on the Cowboys, so it’s an offense that’s more than one player and that includes myself.”
Mahomes said he has not spoken to or seen him since the podcast came out.
“It’s something where I’m sure he’s trying to show that he loves where he’s at in Miami,” he said. “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’s the best and all that different type of stuff. You just go out there and win football games at the end of the day.”
The Chiefs star was asked whether this was some new frustration he was seeing from Hill or whether it bubbled up over the course of last season.
“Definitely new in a sense of how it’s seen on the podcast I guess. Obviously, when you’re the competitor he is, the thing I loved about Tyreek – and still love – is that he wants to win. And I feel like with the coverages we were getting, defenses were accounting for him, so we have to try 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. But now we kind of just move on, and we keep going with the guys we have here, and we try to keep winning football games.”
Hill lauded Tagovailoa’s accuracy in an episode of the “It Needed to be Said” podcast featuring Hill and friend Julius Collins.
“I’ve had a chance to see Tua throw the ball, to myself, but … he’s that due, bro. Like, what a lot of people don’t know, like, I’m not just saying this because he’s my quarterback now … Like, I’m not trying to get more targets right now, but what I’m trying to say is Tua is that deal, bro,” Hill said.
“Bro, he has a heck of an arm, bro. He’s accurate. He can throw the deep ball, and he actually goes through his reads, where people are like on Twitter like saying, ‘Oh, he doesn’t go through his reads.’ Man, this dude is that dude.”
Tagovailoa caught some flak on social media recently for a wobbly throw to Hill during practice. The Dolphins quarterback later slammed “Twitter warriors” critiquing him.
When asked about who was more accurate between Tagovailoa and Mahomes, Hill went above and beyond praising his new quarterback.
“Obviously, like I’m gonna go with 15 as the strongest arm, but, as far as accuracy-wise, I’m going with Tua all day,” Hill said, adding he prefers passes to the numbers rather than trying to track deep balls.
“I love the deep ball, but guess what though? I done expanded my game,” Hill added. “So, now I’m doing a lot more than just the deep ball now. I’m doing intermediate routes. I’m doing short routes. So, now I actually need a guy who can just get me the ball now on a dagger route, on a corner route, on a shallow cross route. You know, right now, right in my chest. So, I can do the rest. I make you look good now.”
There will be higher expectations going into year three for Tagovailoa. In 13 games last season, he threw for 2,653 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Tagovailoa completed 67.8% of his passes in 13 games. Mahomes completed 66.3% of his passes in 658 attempts.
Miami has not made the playoffs since the 2016 season.
