The Kansas City Chiefs' plan to improve their offense is simple: Get Tyreek Hill more involved.
"Growing Tyreek in the offense will be important," coach Andy Reid said this week at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix, via ESPN.com.
Hill played just 401 offensive snaps in the regular season, per Next Gen Stats, which is slightly more than 40 percent of the team's 991 plays. The jitterbug spent 52 percent of his snaps out wide, 39 percent in the slot and 8 percent in the backfield. Hill saw an uptick in play down the stretch, averaging more than 20 snaps a game over the final 10 contests after being used sparingly to open the season.
Reid believes Hill made strides as a receiver but still must make the leap in route running to be a bigger part of the offense.
"He was a running back that they kind of moved around a little bit," Reid said. "His routes when he first came were kind of raw. They weren't as disciplined as they need to be in this offense. So much of this offense is timing and being in a certain spot and knowing defenses, knowing secondaries and all that, how you're going to make adjustments. That was all new. He is a smart kid. He picked it up so fast, and he was able to play at our level."
Reid has discussed Hill this offseason as if the 5-foot-10 speedster would move into the starting lineup full-time and play a DeSean Jackson-type role in the offense, taking the top off defenses and allowing Jeremy Maclin and Travis Kelce work underneath.
While the Chiefs plan to use Hill all over the formation, don't expect him to be used much as a replacement for running back replacing Jamaal Charles.
"We didn't use him a ton back there, (because) he's not a real big guy," Reid said of his 186-pound wideout. "The receiving part, we're going to focus on that and get him more reps in that area. But he can do that other part.
"He'll do nothing but get better as long as he keeps the right attitude and the same work ethic he had this past year. ... He's traditionally been, for us, a very hard worker, very diligent, wanted to do the right things. I wouldn't expect that to change. I'm expecting good things from him."
