NFL Rumors: Chiefs Considered Trading Tyreek Hill At Start Of Free Agency Season, Per ‘The Athletic’
Amid reports that police are investigating two recent battery incidents at the home of Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill, a new update on the wide receiver suggests that his name was mentioned in trade talks that took place at the start of this year’s NFL free agency period.
Although The Athletic’s Jay Glazer did not go into detail in his report published Thursday, which also took a look at several other hot topics in the NFL, Bleacher Report cited his update on Hill, which claims that there were some “rumblings” about the 25-year-old receiver being put on the trading block. Glazer also noted that he was under the impression that the Chiefs might have been considering trading Hill because his contract is due to come up at the end of the upcoming 2019 NFL season.
In addition, Glazer speculated on the punishment Hill could receive from the NFL following the battery allegations, noting that it could “take time” for the league to decide on the player’s fate due to the “severity and sensitivity” of the accusations against him.
As a fifth-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, Tyreek Hill has exceeded expectations in three NFL seasons thus far. As noted by Bleacher Report, Hill has been named to three Pro Bowls, including two as a receiver and one as a returner, and has put up impressive numbers as the Chiefs’ No. 1 receiving target over his last two campaigns. With 2018 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes taking over at quarterback in 2018, Hill tallied career-best numbers in his third year in the league, with 87 receptions, 1,479 receiving yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns, plus one rushing touchdown and another score off a punt return.
Per @JayGlazer the #Chiefs were mentioning Tyreek Hill in trade talks at the start of free agency…..#ShowAndVern https://t.co/1Jb8tjrzsu pic.twitter.com/2eiurEFDUT
— 610SportsKC (@610SportsKC) March 21, 2019
Despite quickly proving to be one of the NFL’s best young players on offense, Hill has also dealt with his share of off-the-field issues. Per Bleacher Report and The Sporting News, Hill was dismissed from Oklahoma State’s football team in 2014 after he was accused of punching and choking his then-pregnant girlfriend, Crystal Espinal. The incident was expunged from his record three years after he pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation.
Currently, Hill is being investigated by Overland Park, Kansas, police authorities for a battery incident that allegedly resulted in his young son breaking his arm earlier this month. Espinal, who is now his fiancee, was the only person listed in a report on a second incident that purportedly took place at Hill’s residence just days later, per KCTV 5.
It’s still too early to tell whether Kansas City will eventually part ways with Tyreek Hill following the allegations made against him, but if he gets traded or cut, he will be the second young Chiefs standout to meet such a fate in recent months. As reported by CNN, the Chiefs cut running back Kareem Hunt in December, days after TMZ leaked a video from February 2018 that appeared to show him shoving and kicking a woman while at a Cleveland hotel.
