Pittsburgh Steelers must plan for Kansas City Chiefs' Tyreek Hill in rematch

When the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers met at Heinz Field back in early October, rookie wide receiver Tyreek Hill's on-field impact had not really been exposed.

Kansas City had played three games and their fifth-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft had touched the ball 25 times, producing 270 yards and a touchdown.

Only 11 of those touches came on offense, producing just 39 yards and the longest play was a 9-yard touchdown catch in the regular-season opener against San Diego.

From watching tapes of the 12 games played by the Chiefs since their last meeting, Pittsburgh has come to understand that Hill will be a much bigger force they must deal with in the divisional round game in the AFC playoffs this coming Sunday.

There was a reminder last week when Hill gained AP All-Pro status as a punt returner, garnering all 50 of the ballots cast for the honor. He led the NFL with a 15.3-yard average return on punts.

It's on offense where Hill's workload and production really increased. In the Chiefs' last three games, he ran the ball 10 times on offense, picking up 178 yards on touchdown runs of 68 and 70 yards. He was targeted 15 times in the passing game, but caught just five passes for 46 yards.

Hill has drawn more attention from defenses in pass coverage, but he also has dropped several passes. That's something that wasn't seen from the sure-handed receiver earlier in the season.

"It hasn't really jumped out at me," said Chiefs head coach Andy Reid of the drops. "Normally the ball is somewhere where it's a tough catch if he's going to drop it. He's got really good hands. He does it in cold weather. He's had a couple of drops on the punts that I noticed, but the other ones I never really considered drops necessarily."

In the final regular season accounting, Hill participated in 418 offensive plays or 41 percent of the snaps with 85 touches. Could his role increase in the playoffs?

"We'll see; every week we've given him a little bit more or moved him around," Reid said. "I think he had 38 snaps the other day (against the San Diego Chargers). I'd tell you we're just kind of moving him in different areas.

"Will he be higher? I don't know. I can't tell you that. We try to give him a little something different to his game every week."