Andy Reid says Chiefs tried to keep Tyreek Hill at a ‘certain cost,’ were aggressive in extension talks

Moving on from Tyreek Hill was a tough decision for the Kansas City Chiefs, yet Andy Reid knew retaining him at the money he wanted was going to significantly alter their championship window. The Chiefs trading Hill to the Miami Dolphins hurt them at the wide receiver position, but it created enough cap space for the team to improve other areas on the roster. 

Kansas City wasn’t giving up extending Hill without a fight. 

“We felt like Tyreek deserved an opportunity,” Reid said at the NFL league meetings Monday, via Pro Football Talk. “We came in aggressive and then after we got to a point, we just said, ‘Hey, listen, in this day and age, you have issues that you have to deal with with the cap,’ so we felt like it was better to allow him to go ahead and be traded. 

“You can go different routes. You can play hard ball with a player and do that, or you can kind of go about the way I did. Or we did.”

The Chiefs traded Hill to the Dolphins in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick (No. 29 overall), 2022 second-round pick (No. 50 overall), 2022 fourth-round pick, a 2023 fourth-round pick and a 2023 sixth-round pick. That’s plenty of draft capital to revamp at wide receiver and other areas of the roster. 

Kansas City already has worked on the position by signing JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in free agency, while also re-signing Josh Gordon. Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson found other teams in free agency, showcasing there’s still work to be done with the offense. 

The Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, the most important factor in the equation. 

“You want to surround him with good players, but that’s a sticky question, because we did try to sign Tyreek at a certain cost,” Reid said. “Once it gets past that, now you can see what we’re doing here with the players we brought in, and we feel they’re very good football players. So we’ll see. 

“I mean the end result is going to be what takes place during the season, but Brett (Chiefs general manager Brett Veach) is building this thing back where we feel comfortable that we can go win on Sundays.”