Tyreek Hill – January 13, 2023
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Friday, January 13, 2023
WR Tyreek Hill
(Does it piss you off inside this locker room that nobody outside this locker room is giving you guys a chance to go up to Buffalo and take the Bills to the woodshed?) – “I wouldn’t say that it pisses us off. It’s definitely more fuel to the tank for us being the underdogs that we are. But coach has been telling us, if we go out there and execute and do our thing, the results are going to be what we want. Obviously it’s a control what you can control situation and we can’t control others’ opinions. We can only control what we do on Sunday.”
(With the magnitude of this game and no QB Tua Tagovailoa and possibly no QB Teddy Bridgewater, just going in there with QB Skylar Thompson and the confidence this team has moving forward heading into a playoff game with Skylar Thompson as the QB?) – “We’ve got the utmost confidence in whoever is in at quarterback. So if Skylar is in or if Teddy is in, it doesn’t matter because we’ve got the playmakers to do whatever it takes to move the ball. We’ve also got the guys up front to be able to do whatever we want.”
(You have some playoff history against the Buffalo Bills. How does it feel to play them now in a different uniform?) – “I think the stakes are a little bit higher. I feel like this one right here will mean a lot more to me because I’ve never been an underdog. I feel like in Kansas City, I was blessed to be on a real good football team. Here, it’s different. I feel like right now I’ve got a chip on my shoulder and so does the rest of the guys. I’m looking forward to the challenge and I know it’s going to be a lot different than those two past games that we played against the Bills.”
(What have you told some of these guys, the guys on the team here, from your playoff experience, of what to expect in a playoff game?) – “Guys’ games are much more elevated in the playoffs. Guys are sharper. Guys are much more on their assignments. And the game is much faster. It’s going to be a lot different because it’s single-game elimination, so guys got to play at a different speed.”
(The last time you went up against them [in the playoffs], you had more than 150 yards and 11 catches. Is it going to take that kind of performance from you to kind of help your team?) – “Whatever it takes, man. If that means for me to go out there and go crazy, whatever it takes. But if it means for me to go out there and block for my teammates and be on my assignments and no MAs (missed assignments) for myself and the rest of the receiver room, then as long as we come out with a W it doesn’t matter if it’s 100 yards or one yard, one catch or 10 catches. It doesn’t matter.”
(When you were in Kansas City, you faced them at home. What do you think of that environment over in Buffalo, especially with this team?) – “It’s going to be crazy. I just hope that there isn’t any snow so the fans aren’t launching snowballs at us because it was crazy last time. Our receiver coach got like smacked in the head. It was funny, though. It was real funny. (laughter) I was kind of mad at Wes (Welker) and I don’t know if somebody felt my energy and they just hit him right in the jaw with a snowball. I’m like, ‘that’s what you get.’ (laughter) So yeah, I just hope there aren’t any snowball (tosses).”
(I know you told us last week that you’d be happy to return punts obviously with WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. down. When you did late in the game, was that a case of you asking Head Coach Mike McDaniel and Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman for you to go out there? Or did they finally say, ‘Ok, I know it’s a risk?’) – “I feel like with football, there’s always a risk. For me to just go out there, I’ve been itching for a return all year. I know Coach Danny (Crossman) does a great job with our return unit on setting up certain things. I just felt like it was time. I felt like it was time to take it back to my rookie year. So I just wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and see if I still can get around the edge one more time.”
(Are you guys playing for QB Tua Tagovailoa as well, just extending the season and giving him maybe one more opportunity this year?) – “I mean if you want to say we’re playing for Tua – I feel like we’re playing for this whole city of Miami. When we play this game, we know that this organization has been through so much. They haven’t been to the playoffs in a minute. They haven’t won a playoff game in a long time. We do this for the whole entire city of Miami. We want to be a part of something special and be a part of history, and be able to live in this moment forever because 10 years down the road from now, if we’re able to come away with this win, we are going to be able to look back at this moment in our careers and say, ‘Man, a lot of people doubted us. A lot of people had us as underdogs.’ What are we, 12- or 13-point underdogs? And we went out there and we took care of business. Other teams are going to be using us as teach tape like, ‘hey, here’s a team that lost their quarterback. There were a lot of situations going on. And they went down there and took care of business. And that shows how a team battles through adversity. It’s going to be a cool moment.”
(If you guys get a win, you might go to Kansas City.) – “Right. But right now, we’ve just got to focus on this week.”
