It's no secret that the Kansas City Chiefs feature a truly historic tandem of pass-catchers on offense, and according to the folks at Pro Football Focus, the duo of tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill is the very best in the NFL.
PFF ranked the top 10 pass-catching tandems in the league on Monday, slotting the Chiefs' electric combination of Kelce and Hill at No. 1 on their list. Here's what analyst Anthony Treash had to say about the ranking:
"Giving Patrick Mahomes an electric deep threat in Tyreek Hill and a dynamic tight end in Travis Kelce is almost unfair. Over the past four years, Hill has notched 56 receptions (most by 10), 2,240 yards (most by 687) and 25 touchdowns (most by 10) on targets of 20-plus yards downfield. The Cheetah has rare, uncoachable traits, including his speed and explosiveness; the amount of separation he creates on vertical routes is special.
Kelce, meanwhile, has not just been the league's most valuable tight end over the past couple of seasons, but he has been the fourth-most valuable pass-catcher, regardless of position, in that span. He is fresh off a year in which he led all tight ends in receiving grade, and he has ranked no lower than fourth in any of the past five seasons."
Hill and Kelce are each among the top pass-catchers in the NFL, making the fact that they both suit up for the same offense all the more remarkable. In fact, over the last three regular seasons alone, the tandem has combined to catch 537 passes for 7,596 yards and 60 touchdowns. For context, Kelce (No. 2) and Hill (No. 7) each rank in the top 10 among all players in receiving yards during that span while no other team features multiple players in the top 15.
They're simply in a class of their own individually, and when they're each on the field at the same time, defenses often can't slow down both. In the 43 regular season games over the last three seasons that have featured Hill and Kelce, at least one of the two has topped 100 receiving yards on 20 occasions (including three outings in which they both did so).
Additionally, opponents have held both Hill and Kelce out of the end zone just eight times in that 43-game span. At least one of the two has tallied a receiving score in each of the other 35 contests.
This past season was perhaps the best for each of them, too. Kelce set an NFL record for a tight end with 1,416 receiving yards while Hill hauled in 15 receiving touchdowns, combining for a ridiculous 192 catches, 2,692 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns in just 15 games between the two of them. Among qualified players, Hill (14.0) and Kelce (13.5) owned the top two spots in the NFL in terms of scrimmage yards per touch during the 2020 campaign. Once again, no other team featured multiple players in the top 10.
Those numbers just further justify PFF's lofty ranking of the duo, and at this rate, Kelce and Hill will go down as one of the top tandems to ever play the game together.
