Who deserves the award for the Chiefs’ bye-week offensive MVP?

At the season’s bye week, we’re awarding the Chiefs’ best offensive player.

There are 11 games in the books — and six more to go. While we may not be right at the halfway mark of the 2021 regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs are taking their bye week in Week 11, so it’s a good time to dish out some awards.

The Arrowhead Pride writing staff members each had one vote for our seven midseason awards. There are 12 contributors, so there will be 12 votes tallied for each award. In this post, we’ll reveal our offensive player of the year to this point of the season.

VOTING: Hill (7), Creed Humphrey (2), Travis Kelce (1), Patrick Mahomes (1), Trey Smith (1)

Through the ups and downs of the Chiefs’ offense this season, wide receiver Tyreek Hill has been the most consistent contributor to the scoreboard and the team’s yardage totals. He leads in targets, receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns; he also leads the team in yards from scrimmage.

Not only is he the team’s most voluminous receiver, but he’s also one of the most quantitative pass catchers in the entire NFL. He leads the league in targets (122) and has the second-most receptions in the league (84), one behind Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp; even with an extra game more than most players, Hill still has the second-highest rate of targets per game (11.1) and catches per game (7.6).

He has turned that high usage rate into the fifth-most receiving yards (932) in the league and the third-most receiving touchdowns (8); only Kupp and Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans have more scores this season. He also has the most catches resulting in a first down (57), five more than any other player.

It’s not just his receiving ability: Hill is also a constant threat to turn a reverse or jet sweep into a significant gain. He has eight carries this year; five of them have resulted in 11 or more yards — including the 33-yard gain against the Dallas Cowboys that helped the Chiefs build an early lead.

Currently, he’s on pace to finish with 188 receiving targets, 129 receptions, 1,440 receiving yards, and 12 total touchdowns; in total yards, Hill is on pace to finish with 1,585. The targets and receptions lines would shatter his previous career-high — while he has had one season with that many receiving yards and two seasons with that amount of scores.

As opposing defenses have focused on taking away the deep ball, Hill has adjusted to becoming a dependable target in the short and intermediate areas of the field. He has had significant drops at times — but so has the rest of the Chiefs’ receiving corps.

In total, he’s been the most significant net positive to the offense over the entirety of the season so far.