Players who own Tyreek Hill in fantasy football were living on Easy Street a week ago when the all-world receiver dusted Tampa Bay for 269 yards with three of his career-high 13 catches going for touchdowns. By comparison, Week 13 was a frustrating one for those invested in Hill.
The 26-year-old finished with a respectable six catches for 58 yards against Denver, but it should have been a much bigger night for Tyreek, who corralled what appeared to be a 40-yard touchdown from Patrick Mahomes (the ruling on the field was incomplete) and also had a 48-yarder (an occasion he celebrated with another one of his patented backflips) nullified by a holding penalty on the Chiefs’ offensive line.
The Chiefs ended up winning, but not by the margin you’d expect (22-16) from a team that has made a habit of decimating its division rival in recent years (KC bludgeoned the Broncos 43-16 when these squads met in October). The game very well could have come down to Tyreek’s touchdown that never was, which begs the question, why didn’t Andy Reid challenge it? Had officials taken a second look, the call would have been reversed in a hippie’s heartbeat.
So what gives, Andy? Was he daydreaming about burgers and Tommy Bahama shirts? Nope. He was just given bad information by Hill, who insisted he never caught it. Rather than potentially waste a timeout, Reid took Tyreek at his word, signaling for the punt unit on fourth-and-10. In hindsight, Reid regretted not trusting his gut, saying if he had to do it over, he would have happily whipped out the challenge flag.
“He came up and said that he didn’t catch it. I probably should have held on to it a little longer to look at the replay,” said Reid via Jordan Heck of the Sporting News. “You can normally tell with a receiver whether he had it or not. Especially Tyreek. He was as surprised as any of us that he ended up with the football."
Based on Hill’s reaction, Mahomes was also under the impression he had thrown an incomplete pass. "I didn't realize until after they showed the replay and we already punted,” said the reigning Super Bowl MVP. “I told Tyreek in the locker room, 'Man you're so good at receiver that you don’t even know when you catch touchdowns these days.’”
Even without the touchdown, Hill is still tied with Minnesota’s Adam Thielen for the league-lead in that stat with a career-high 13 receiving scores. Hill also ranks third in receiving yards (1,079) behind only teammate Travis Kelce (1,114) and DK Metcalf (1,119) of the Seahawks.
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