Tyreek Hill – August 1, 2024
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Thursday, August 1, 2024
WR Tyreek Hill
(When “Jump Around” was playing at the start of practice, you were fired up getting everybody else excited. What was it about today that made you so excited to be out here?) – “You know what’s crazy man? The receivers haven’t had an orange jersey this whole camp, and I just wanted to, simply – I want to come out every day and set the standard. Today was one of those days that I felt real good, so I wanted the guys to follow suit. You see that the offense had a real good day today, it was just one of those days.”
(What was your reaction to finding out that QB Tua Tagovailoa got his big contract?) – “I was excited, man. I was turned up for my boy. We were all sitting in meetings, and when it happened, we all went down to the quarterback room and try to congratulate him, but he wasn’t down there. Yeah, I was real happy but the message was simply we got what we wanted. Our quarterback got paid, so now it’s time to take care of business, and we all know what that is.”
(There was a play today where it looked like you went one way and the ball went the other way and then you and QB Tua Tagovailoa kind of had a conversation about it. I’m just curious what those conversations are like when you guys are on different pages?) – “Man look, I be so fired up, I be so ready to go against (Jalen) Ramsey that sometimes I forget my freaking route, man. On that play, he threw it to a spot, he was right. I went out and it was supposed to be in. I was just so fired up and ready that sometimes when you get so in a mode going against these guys, it’s like you don’t even be thinking sometimes. You hear a word, and you’re like OK. You automatically assume you got that, but it’s just one of those things that I got to be in the right spot at the right time. And he came and told me, ‘Come on, ‘Reek, I need you in the right spot.’ I was in the wrong spot.”
(You guys have gotten CB Jalen Ramsey a couple of times at practice. You did the other day, and WR Jaylen Waddle did today. Do you chirp at him a little bit when that happens? Or is it respect and you move on to the next play?) – “It goes back and forth, man. We got a real good team. We’re very fortunate to have (Jalen) Ramsey on the other side, a very competitive guy. A guy who doesn’t shy away from anything. It’s fun, it’s a part of the game. You win some, you lose some. Fortunate for us, we’ve been on the winning side. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot playing with Ramsey, understanding different leverages, understanding different releases I can use against different guys with longer arms. The process has been fun.”
(I don’t know if you saw there was an NFL Network reporter who visited the Kansas City Chiefs camp. It was on the internet there. He said the Chiefs have to have the fastest team in the NFL. Is that possible, or no?) – “Look man, people can say whatever they want to say. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. At the end of the day, we all know you can’t say that until you really put on the pads and get on the field. Obviously, people have seen what we do down here in Miami, which is fast, explosive, whatever you want to call it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, man. Kansas City got a great group of young guys who can fly, but I’m still going to stand 10 toes down for the guys we got here.”
(It seems like WR Jaylen Waddle is having a great camp. How have you seen him come back from the summer and get even better this year?) – “You know what, obviously when you’ve got the mindset and you take the right approach on wanting to lean on some of the veteran guys that you’ve got in the room, he’s done a tremendous job with that – leaning on myself, leaning on Coach (Wes) Welker. He’s done a great job of being real coachable in that aspect of it. For me, that’s what I told him. I said, ‘When I came into the league, it’s a lot of guys who are real talented, but the guys that are successful in this league are the ones that are real coachable.’ At the end of the day, we’re all trying to get better. Ain’t none of us perfect. I can go for 2,000 yards, there are still way I can get better. For him, he’s come in with a different approach on what routes I need to get better at, how can I be more talkative with the quarterback and what spots I need to be in and stuff like that. So far it has paid off for him. He’s came out here each and every day busting his tail, and we’re still competing. His team versus my team on one-on-ones. You can see at the end of camp the results paid off. He’s busting his tail, he scored a big one at the end.”
(You guys have three potential Hall of Famers on the team. You, CB Jalen Ramsey and DT Calais Campbell. How do you use that to your advantage on and off the field?) – “Well, on the field, obviously just having the presence of guys like that is amazing man, because veteran leadership is everything in this league. Off the field, I feel like we bring another aspect to it, because this is the most I’ve seen this Miami team hangout since I’ve been here. It’s a beautiful thing to see. Also when you add a guy like Odell Beckham (Jr.), the type of personality that he has, building that off-field teammate brotherhood that you need, because at the end of the day we all need it.”
(I can’t believe I’m asking you this, but there’s a YouTube guy who claims that he’s going to race you today. Is this the first you’ve heard of it? Do you think that I’m crazy or?) – “I think you’re crazy still. (laughter) But no, what’s crazy is the funny story is I actually invited him out here to practice. I didn’t say I was going to race him, but I did say I was going to invite him out of practice, and I told Coach to put him in shoulder pads. I want to see how he’d do out here with us the whole day, the group of receivers. So just to mix it up a little bit, change it up, change his lifestyle up and see if he can hang with us in the sun.”
(And what became of that?) – “He didn’t show. He did a no-show. That’s all I can say, but hopefully he’ll come tomorrow. We’ll see.”
(On the receiver draft Year 2 obviously, you had to pay for dinner last year. How is your unit doing? Also I need the explanation why WR River Cracraft is always your first pick? And why do you get the first pick?) – “Right now the score is 4-1. ‘J-Dub’s’ (Jaylen Waddle) team is losing, getting his head cracked in every day. The reason why I pick ‘Riv’ (River Cracraft) is because ‘Riv’ is one of those guys that he understands the offense and he’s always in the right place. Last year when we were doing this, we counted blocks. He’s that one guy who’s going to make a key block for (De’Von) Achane or (Raheem) Mostert to break one to the house every time, and that’s why I always pick ‘Riv’ man. Because he’s smart, he knows where to be at on the field and you can always account for him. He’s one of those guys.”
(Why do you get the first pick?) – ‘I don’t know why ‘J-Dub’ (Jaylen Waddle) gives me the first pick all the time.”
(Does he pick the next two, or how does that work?) – ‘No. He just picks the next one, and he chose (Braxton) Berrios.”
(Now that the team took care of QB Tua Tagovailoa, are you vying to be next? I know you want a restructure or extension.) – ‘You know what man, at this point you see me out here practicing each and every day. At this point, my focus is on helping this team win games. I know it’s going to come whenever it happens. My agent, he’s doing his thing, I just got done having a conversation with him. The conversations are positive right now, so we’re going to keep it positive. But for right now, I’m going to keep practicing every day trying to help this team win games.”
(The NFL added some language to the speed motion rule. I don’t know if you heard that. It’s a clarification that states very clearly that you’re not allowed to have an abrupt false start or forward illegal motion after the speed motion. If in fact the NFL is going to have a point of emphasis on that, how aware will you have to be?) – “That’s my first time hearing about that, but our head coach, he’ll find a way to make a way around that. He does a great job of creating schemes for us to get open – that’s why he’s one of the best offensive minded coaches in the game, because he does a great job of creating these motions. He allows us to tweak it a little bit, but he puts his own little spin on it. I feel like we ain’t going to have a problem with that.”
(Without telling us, last year that was the big adjustment. Do you have something else coming down the line this year that is just going to wow defenses and totally reset?) – ‘You know what man? Every day I got to be prepared man, because there’s like all kinds of motions in this offense, dawg. The wording of it is crazy, so I’m not going to even say that – it’s crazy. But I feel like we’ve got some plays that’s going to wow teams, because teams are already looking for certain motions whenever I line up a certain way or (Jaylen) Waddle lines up a certain way. So we do have a few packages or few motions that’s going to be like, ‘Oh, where did that come from?’ That’s going to kind of like surprise the defense out of nowhere, so it’s going to be fun this year man.”
(How eager are you to get WR Odell Beckham Jr. into practicing with the wide receiver corps and what can it look like once he is?) – “I’m ready man. Our receiver room is real close and I’m looking forward to that. He’s been saying that the first day he comes out, he’s going to moss (Jalen) Ramsey with one hand, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m going to hold him up to that too. The first day he comes out here in one-on-ones, I’m going to say, ‘You got to do it, bro. You got to do it.’ So I’m looking forward to it man. Odell (Beckham Jr.) obviously, he’s one of those guys who can make plays everywhere on the field. Just having his energy, his presence on the field with me and (Jaylen) Waddle, it’s going to be fun man, and I know Tua (Tagovailoa) is going to do a great job finding him.”
(Right before practice, it looked like Head Coach Mike McDaniel went over to the wideouts and said to talk smack during practice. Is that what happened, and how much smack talk did you guys do?) – “We’ve been on that energy since we woke up this morning. So when we had meetings this morning, we woke up with the mindset of we’re going to win the orange jersey today. I know he’s going to give it to somebody else because he likes to show favorites. (laughter) That’s what Coach do – like we work up with that energy today. When (Jalen) Ramsey said what he said about the offense, how they whooped our (expletive). Offense, we came with a different mindset today like, ‘Hold on, bruh. Y’all must’ve forgot we’re No. 1 for a reason, dawg. We do this for a reason.’ You feel me? We got teams backing up for a reason, like this what we do. So we had to go ahead and show them who we was today and remind them, ‘Hey, y’all still little bro today.”
