And you probably already think he’s awesome. Thing is, what we’re seeing now is way past merely conventional awesome—and maybe headed for an area we haven’t seen before at Hill’s position.
The numbers are the numbers. Through the Dolphins’ 9–3 start, the 29-year-old, eighth-year pro has 93 catches for 1,481 yards and 12 touchdowns. For a full 17-game season, that projects to 132 catches, 2,098 yards and 17 touchdowns. Those would rank sixth, first, and sixth all-time for a single season, which would be remarkable, even by Hill’s lofty standards.
But what’s really wild to me is how he keeps piling up these totals. Despite defenses doing anything and everything possible to rein in the threat Hill poses every week, he continually gets past corners, gets behind coverage and makes play after play. After play after play. And it happened again Sunday in the same way it’s happened forever, with a pair of long, striking touchdowns—one a 78-yarder caught in stride and turned into a footrace, the other a 60-yarder fielded like a pop fly, since Hill was far enough clear of coverage to get back to an underthrow.
So afterward, I reached out to Wes Welker, an authority as Hill’s position coach and a guy who was once a pretty dominant receiver in his own right, to ask, well, how this seems to keep happening, no matter what the defense tries to do. Because, of course, it’s not like the Commanders were looking to let Hill go bonkers, as Miami pulled away for a 45–15 win.
Welker’s answer was interesting. As he sees it, the home runs keep coming in large part Hill’s ability to hit to all fields.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he has such a full route tree,” Welker said, as he boarded the team plane Sunday night. “His ability to break down and his ability with his speed, he’s the fastest guy out there, and he’s as fast as he needs to be on any given play. He gets open. He just goes and finds it. The Willie Mays Hayes catch he made today was incredible. I was just kind of shaking my head at times.
“It’s not coaching—it’s just being that good. It’s impressive to see. I can’t really explain it. I know we’ve tried to put the defense in conflict and different things like that. But the reason why there’s so much conflict is mainly because of him.”
Welker then expounded that while, yes, Mike McDaniel’s offense has the library of routes and concepts that allow Hill to threaten a defensive back at every level, Hill’s ability to execute all of it (something Hill’s worked at tirelessly) is unique for someone with his speed and explosiveness, and it’s part of what makes his speed nearly impossible to neutralize.
Then, you add his know-how, with the experience he has, and it gets even more difficult.
“He is super smart,” Welker continues. “Whether it’s a walkthrough rep, as long as he sees it, walks through it, he’s got it. There are a lot of good players that you have to continue to remind, . With him, he hears it one time, and it’s there. He understands coverages. He understands how to attack leverages and understands what a presnap look and a postsnap look mean, all those things that are vital for a top receiver to understand. Along with the skill set to go along with it, it’s hard to come by what he has.”
The Commanders can attest to that, with the two long scores illustrating Welker’s points.
The first came 5:32 into the game, with Hill beating Jartavius Martin on a double-move out of the slot, then running away from veteran safety Kam Curl.
“The safety was cheated over toward the running back,” Welker says. “We liked our matchup with the running back and the linebacker. I think they kind of knew that. They cheated the safety over there. He had far outside leverage. He had a wide-and-go from the slot. He just inside releases a guy and then gets back to his landmark. Tua [Tagovailoa] puts it up there, and you’re not catching him once he gets behind you.”
The second score—the one Welker called the (a reference)—came in the second quarter, from the Miami 40. Tagovailoa’s throw was short and too far inside, necessitating a wild adjustment from Hill while the ball was in the air.
“Next thing you know, he does his baseball turn and catches a touchdown—crazy,” Welker says. “It’s just the fact that a lot of times, you’re not taking your eyes off the ball once it’s in the air. As you're running full speed, all of a sudden the ball’s on the outside, a lot of times, you sit there and want to flip your hips, but you lose your speed when you do that. For him to have the presence of mind to flip his head around and go find the ball over his outside shoulder, that’s not easy.
“He made it look really easy, and I’m telling you, that is a hard, hard thing to do.”
Now, as he carries a record pace into December, it’s obvious that what Hill’s doing hasn’t been, isn’t and won’t ever be easy. Which only makes it even more remarkable how simple he makes it all look.
