When the Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in the 2022 offseason, a lot of criticism was thrown their way. People thought their reign of terror in the AFC West was over after Hill was shipped off, as the rest of the division was loading up and it felt like for the first time in awhile, the division would be up for grabs.

Well, unfortunately for the rest of the division, that wasn’t the case. The Chiefs have still been the kings of the AFC West and have added two Super Bowl trophies to their trophy case. In 2022, JuJu Smith-Schuster stepped up as a prime weapon for Patrick Mahomes but in 2023, the position had a lot of problems.

That didn’t seem to matter at the end of the day, however, as Kansas City waltzed its way to another Super Bowl title, its third in five years. While appearing on the Stacking the Box podcast, former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III said that he believes Mahomes became a better quarterback after Hill left.

“When [Mahomes] had Tyreek Hill, it was a little bit different. It was a little bit of ‘Tyreek’s open down there somewhere, right? I’m just gonna throw this bad boy as far as I can’ and now that he doesn’t have Tyreek, his process has changed so much that he’s actually become a better quarterback, right? He’s reading the defenses better, he’s getting through his progressions better, he’s being okay with taking whatever the defense allows him to have while also still having that special ability that he has to make things happen out of nowhere.”

Griffin continues noting that when he was with the Ravens from 2018 to 2020 and watched Mahomes play his team, he noted that Baltimore had the better team but that they didn’t have Mahomes. That was the difference.

RGIII says Patrick Mahomes’ game evolved even more after Tyreek Hill was traded

The wide receiver situation in Kansas City hasn’t been great since Tyreek Hill was traded but Mahomes continues to do what he does and help the team win championships. Without Hill in the 2022 season, Mahomes managed just fine, winning the MVP award after throwing for over 5,200 yards and 41 touchdowns.

It was the 2023 season when Mahomes’ best wide receiver was rookie Rashee Rice where people could finally say he didn’t have the weapons helping him succeed. Defenses would swarm Travis Kelce and eventually Rice too, making things hard on the offense and it was by far the worst offense we saw of the Mahomes era.

Luckily, the defense bailed this team out of a lot of jams, and the Chiefs still went on to be victorious in the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Hill and the Dolphins have been unable to win a playoff game since he arrived in South Beach so now looking back, we know the trade was the right move.

As Griffin noted, this trade helped Mahomes figure out how to win without his best weapon, and that made him evolve and become a better quarterback. The former 10th overall pick is still figuring out how to grow his game and that’s terrifying for the rest of the league.

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