After Catching ‘Space Balls’ for Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill Shared His Football Tracking Secret With James Palmer

To this day, the Kansas City Chiefs are trying to carve their receivers in Tyreek Hill’s image. Hill came on top in his last season with the Miami Dolphins and had 1,799 yards and 13 touchdowns. The reason for such a massive yardage is his explosiveness and reception skills. But fans might not believe where it comes from.

James Palmer spoke with Kay Adams and had a few beans to spill about the Kansas City Chiefs’ training regimen and how Tyreek Hill has left his mark on the team for times to come. Adams brought up how “slept on” Tyreek Hill’s intelligence and instincts on the field are.

We’ve seen Hill running at full speed and catching the ball just in the nick of time without paying a whole lot of attention to the ball. Taking to this, James Palmer had an anecdote to share about the ex-Chiefs receiver and how he developed this kind of football acumen. Palmer elaborated on Hill’s “ability to track the ball in the air.”

“A lot of those balls are just thrown to space right, and Tyreek was unbelievable at going and getting the football early in Mahomes career,” said Palmer and continued, “One time Tyreek was in the locker room and he’s eating a thing of ice cream, soft served ice-cream and I’m like ‘Dude how do you track the ball so well?” The Cheetah had the most surprising answer to Palmer’s question.

“Kickball,” Hill told Palmer. “I used to be the pitcher in Kickball, and I’d roll the ball and then backpedal to the middle of the field and then catch everything that was kicked in like elementary school, middle school,” said Hill affirming that “Kickball is how I learned to track a football so well.”

In a game that happened on October 13, 2019, against the Texans, Patrick Mahomes threw a deep ball to Hill who caught a 49-yard Hail Mary while competing with two people at once. After he made the catch, the Texans tried to stop Hill from getting to the end zone, but could not overpower the Cheetah.

During his Combine, Hill recorded a 40-yard dash in 4.29 seconds. Xavier Worthy broke that record and did it in 4.21 seconds in the 2024 NFL Combine. This is the kind of talent that Andy Reid has his eyes on. One of the most epic examples of Tyreek Hill tracking the ball came when Miami was playing against the Patriots in the last season, and Xavier Worthy has very similar skills to Hill, despite having a frail body.

Why Tyreek Hill reins superior over a lot of other wide receivers

The Dolphins played the Patriots last October and defeated them 31-17. One of the highlights of that play was Tua Tagovailoa’s 42-yard-deep ball to Tyreek Hill. The QB threw a Hail Mary while Hill ran full speed from the line of scrimmage. The Cheetah got to the end zone in a matter of seconds and made the 42-yard catch. It was probably one of the most watched highlights of his career.

We’ve seen Xavier Worthy do something similar in his time at Texas Longhorns. The Texas team went against the Houston Cougars and Xavier Worthy did something impeccable in the end zone. The QB threw a deep ball to the end zone, Worthy ran at full speed and made the catch without even paying attention to the ball. He knew where it was going to land. Exceptional tracking indeed!

With these skills combined with those of Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown, the Kansas City Chiefs hope to fill the massive gap that Tyreek Hill left. Do you recall any exceptional plays from Hill or Worthy? Let us know in the comments.