Dave Hyde: Tyreek Hill for MVP? He’s got his speedy Dolphins predecessor’s vote.
“He’s a bad man,” Mark Duper says.
Tyreek Hill?
“He’s going to break a lot of NFL records, if he continues what he’s doing,” Duper says.
Tyreek Hill?
“If a receiver can get the MVP …” he says.
The last Miami Dolphins receiver to get open deep as spectacularly as Hill does weekly is a fan now. He’s 64. He goes to games just like you. He’s excited about this season’s chances just like you. But heading into Monday’s game against the Tennessee Titans he marvels at this offense in a different manner than you.
“I look at what’s happening and give my hats off to the offensive coordinator and coach — and I guess they’re the same guy,” he said of Mike McDaniel. “In our offense back in the day, we ran precise routes. These guys run to the open area a lot of times, and somehow they’ve got (quarterback Tua Tagovailoa) on the same page in a way that shows how much planning and talent there is in what’s going on.
“I remember going into the open field knowing no one was going to catch me. Those were the good ol’ days. That’s what makes it so good to go to the games now. I see that happening every game.”
Remember when former Dolphins greats scorched the state of their franchise? It was target practice at times to the point when the late, great guard Bob Kuechenberg made his annual synopsis he was told to get a “hug and a hobby,” from Hall of Famer Jason Taylor.
This is another story that’s changed this season. Mercury Morris recognizes the running-back speed of De’Von Achane. Dan Marino congratulates Tuagovailoa after games. Duper talks of how he’d fit in in this offense because so many were sprinters in college like he was.
Duper ran track at Northwestern State (La.) University and didn’t play football until his senior year. He didn’t know who Don Shula was until the Dolphins coach demanded Duper run the 40-yard dash four times at the NFL combine.
“He stood there with a stopwatch each time,” Duper said.
So, there’s some added kinship with Hill, the national track athlete of the year in high school. Hill isn’t just a deep threat as he combines Duper’s go-deep speed and former teammate Mark Clayton’s shifty moves. With Marino passing the ball, they re-wrote the league’s passing numbers starting in 1984.
“These guys can do the same if they stick around,” Duper said.
Hill leads the league with 12 receiving touchdowns and 1,384 yards receiving. He enters Monday night’s game tied with Duper’s team record of eight, 100-yard receiving games in a season.
The big number Hill wants, the one he’s talked about since last offseason, is becoming the first player to reach 2,000 yards receiving. He’d pass Calvin Johnson’s NFL record 1,964 receiving yards on the way. But Hill, if the Dolphins wanted, might have threatened that barrier by now.
Hill has only 88 yards receiving in the fourth quarter compared to 670 yards (41.9%) by Johnson in that 2012 season, as South Florida Sun Sentinel editor Steve Svekis researched. Hill’s total is due in part to several games like last Sunday in Washington when he sat out much of the second half of a 45-15 win. Johnson, by comparison, was on a 4-12 Detroit team that trailed so often that it was throwing all game.
Does that suggest Hill’s impact is even undervalued? Of course, there’s the line about the further a player lines up from the football the more he’s dependent on others. A receiver needs a top quarterback, a good line, a smart system. Even then …
“I knew Kansas City would take him out of the game,” Duper said of Hill’s eight catches for 62 yards against his former team. “They set up their defense against him.”
Even that defense’s idea showed Hill’s impact.
“It’s a totally different game now,” Duper said. “That’s how it goes. Basketball is different than when Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played. Football’s rules have changed to help the offense. Like receivers can’t be hit going over the middle.
“I heard bells in my head after hits in games. Third play against Pittsburgh in the playoffs of our Super Bowl year (1985), a Pittsburgh safety put his helmet in his ear lobe. I didn’t lose consciousness, but (teammate) Nat Moore had to tell me what to do before each play after that.”
That’s not what Duper thinks of watching Dolphins games, though.
“The number of targets the receivers is what I notice,” he said. “I never had 20 balls thrown to me like they can have. I never had 15. I imagine what kind of numbers I could’ve put up if that was the way offenses were back then.”
For nearly a decade, he brought Hill’s speed to the Dolphins offense. On Monday night, he’ll go to Hard Rock with the chance of his franchise record for 100-yard games falling. What’s more, as a fan now, he says, “I’m expecting it.”
