Has Tyreek Hill cracked the code?
The Dolphins’ superstar receiver made a wild admission on Thursday, telling reporters that instead of watching film to scout opponents before a game, he takes to the video game “Madden” to get a heads up on the cornerbacks he’s lining up against the next day.
“I feel like Madden has a good tell of how good [opponents] are. So I just play Madden the night before and I just go look at all their ratings,” Hill, a seven-time Pro Bowler, said.
“So let’s just say for instance they have Steve Nelson and Derek Stingley over there, two phenomenal players by the way… I just go to the EA rosters, then I scroll down and see what their awareness is, their speed and their strength, and that’s how I get a good tell on them,” he added.
Hill’s scouting strategy is certainly surprising, given the 29-year-old’s prowess as a wide receiver.
After six years with the Chiefs in which he caught 479 passes for 6,630 yards and 56 touchdowns, emerging as one of Patrick Mahomes’ favorite offensive options, Hill had arguably his best season last year in his first one in a Dolphins uniform.
He caught a career-high 119 passes for 1,710 yards, which was also a career watermark.
Along with Jaylen Waddle and Tua Tagovailoa, Hill helped turn the Dolphins’ offense into a fearsome unit and Miami into a contender — the Dolphins ranked sixth in total yards and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Hill has posted at least 1,000 receiving yards in five out of seven of his years in the NFL and has earned a trip to the Pro Bowl every season.
The star receiver said earlier this offseason he didn’t have a problem with ex-Bengals cornerback Eli Apple joining the Dolphins, despite the pair’s history of calling each other out.
“So I just feel like a lot of people, it just get fed into what’s going on in social media, and that’s not really what it is,” Hill said. “I was fired up for us to be able to add another competitor to this team because that makes us better in the long run, having that cornerback depth.