Tyreek Hill – September 10, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 10, 2023
Postgame – L.A. Chargers
WR Tyreek Hill
(How do you feel? You’re on an accelerated pace for 2,000 receiving yards. You made a statement Game 1.) – “Oh yeah, it’s good. Very grateful to be in this position that I’m in. It means a lot, coming from a small town, being able to play on this platform, I’m very grateful. I’m very honored to be in this position, and I wouldn’t take it for granted. I was telling the guys today right before the game, I’m like, ‘We’re playing on the Lord’s day. So let’s come out here, and let’s ball. Let’s have fun. Let’s play fast and deliberate.’ I just, I don’t know, I kind of went into a zone there.”
(I feel like there are so many throws and catches to ask you about. Let’s start with that 35-yarder down the sideline for the touchdown when you were hyped coming around the side of field?) – “Our coaches, they do a great job of giving the defense a certain look. So I was inside releasing the whole game, and that’s what the corner was expecting. Inside released the whole game, and (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) and Tua (Tagovailoa) came to me and were like, ‘What do you think about Z-Sky?’ I was like, ‘You know what? That sounds like a great idea, because I’ve been releasing inside, the corner isn’t going to be expecting me to release outside.’ Sure enough, I hit him with an inside move, and I was wide open. I was able to use my speed. Tua delivered a great pass. I was so hyped though, because that dude, J.C. Jackson, a hell of a player. He had just caught a pick, and I’m like, ‘No, we need some momentum,’ so I got us.”
(What about QB Tua Tagovailoa? We’ve been waiting to see him since he went out last year. After the day he had and the way you connected with him?) – “Bro, Tua is a baller. I’ve been saying this since last year. I’ve been an advocate for him, and he definitely showed it today. Even during halftime, he was able to come in and get guys going a little bit. Even on the sideline with me, he was like, ‘Hey, Cheetah. Let’s get it, baby.’ Big time moment, big time players make big time plays. He kind of leaned on me a little bit towards the end. That just means more targets for me, and I kind of enjoy that.”
(You had 15 targets. That final drive, this is a league where that final drive matters. The poise and some of the plays that you guys were able to execute, if you could just walk me through some of the big plays, including your catch and then the TD catch at the end?) – “Right, that’s what training camp moments are for. I feel like me and Tua and the rest of the guys, the rest of the pass catchers, we’ve been working our tail off on being on the same page. We meet together after every practice, and we just try to find ways to just be in the right spot for the quarterback. We actually got that advice from the great Dan Marino, actually. He was like, ‘You guys need to start meeting together after the practice and don’t meet with your position coach.’ So we decided to start meeting together, and ever since then, it’s like everything has been on the same page with Tua. Everybody’s been on the same page with Tua, and the last drive was a perfect example of it.”
(Was that this year that Dan Marino gave you that advice?) – “Yeah, that was Dan Marino, the great Dan Marino.”
(Did he give you that this offseason?) – “No, it was actually preseason, because I just so happened to be at the bar in a preseason game. I walked in and he was like, ‘Hey, Reek. Man, you’ve been doing a great job.’ We began to talk about practice and stuff like that, and he was like, ‘You guys need to start meeting together. You know, I used to do that with all my guys back in the day, and we used to be on the same page.’ So Tua went to ‘Bev’ (Quarterbacks Coach Darrell Bevell), and we just came together, started watching film every day after practicing. It’s been working wonders.”
(I know it’s just Game 1 of 17, which you hope is more, but how satisfying is it? You said you wanted to start off with Los Angeles, how satisfying is it to come here to kind of get the stench off of last year to start the year off?) – “It feels good. It feels good, man, to come back here and win a tough game against a tough opponent. They have great talent on that side of the ball, and I’m just glad that we started with this game. Last year, those guys, they did a great job of pressing us. So I feel like this year, like I’ve been saying all offseason, we had a chance to go back and get a full understanding of the offense, and you see that the results were different.”
(Do you feel unstoppable, like they’re going to throw it to you, and nobody is going to be able to cover you? Because you had so many big plays today.) – “I always feel like that. I always feel like nobody can guard me as a competitor. I feel like if you ask anybody in our room, they’ll say the same thing – can’t nobody guard me or them. I just feel like that’s just a competitive mindset. I want the ball. Well, that sounds kind of like crazy. But yeah, like I just feel like can’t nobody guard me.”
(You told us last year you really got by mostly on athleticism. The first time now that you get to apply what you’ve learned in the offseason, do you feel more second nature and instinctual?) – “Oh man, like everything is more fluid this year. Because last year, I was just banking on my speed and just banking on me just outrunning guys. But this year, I was in my bag a little bit more on release moves and just routes at the top and stuff like that. That’s how I was able to get my first catch, I had a dagger. Last year, we ran the same exact route, and I wasn’t open. But this year, it’s a whole lot different, because I know how to run it and I know exactly how many steps I need to be at and stuff like that. So yeah, everything was different. And I’m not just counting on my speed, obviously after the catch I am but yeah.”
(Speaking of in his bag, how much was Head Coach Mike McDaniel doing that for you this game?) – “Oh, yeah, he was definitely in his bag. I definitely got to give him a shoutout, also our offensive coordinator, Frank (Smith). Those guys do a great job of dialing us up, setting up plays. Also just aligning plays for really just everybody to make plays. So those guys do a great job of just getting everybody involved.”
(In the game, there were a lot of fans here from Miami supporting the team.) – “Oh yeah, I saw that. Shout out to the Fins fans.”
(You threw a ball over there in that section. How much energy did you guys feed off that, just having the crowd support?) – “I definitely caught a cramp after throwing that ball up there. I shouldn’t have been so hype. (laughter) But besides that, it was definitely a momentum swing for us. We definitely needed that. Defense had just got a stop, I believe. So, us being able to come off a turnover, defense get a stop and then score, that’s definitely huge, especially for a young team. So I just feel like me being that captain man, I have to be that dude. I sometimes got to get out of my shell and just turn up man and just show people that maybe I’m not a cheetah, I’m a lion, baby.”
(Tell us a little bit more about these meetings. How long do they last? And what do you think is the main gain that you get out of it? Is it getting down your timing or exchanging ideas on plays that you feel most comfortable with?) – “No, it’s not about that man. Because I feel like the players, our job is to play, so we just leave play calls and all that to Tua (Tagovailoa) and the offensive coordinator and head coach. It’s just about just understanding coverages together and just being in the right spot for Tua. So we ran a bunch of out routes today, and we knew that we were going to get a certain coverage from them. Just being on the same page about, ‘Hey Tua, I’m going to take this many steps,’ or ‘If he does this, I’m going to go inside.’ Or ‘If he does this, I’m going to keep going over the top.’ So just small things like that, but the main thing is just understanding coverage, because obviously this offense is about timing. And if it’s not on time, then it’s either a sack or something much worse, and we don’t want that. We want to be in the right spot for the quarterback.”
