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The San Francisco 49ers learned the hard way in Week 3 what can happen when the ball is put back in Aaron Rodgers’ hands with time on the clock and the game on the line, but it turns they were worried about more than just the NFL’s reigning MVP in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter.
After taking a 28-27 lead over the Green Bay Packers with 37 seconds left on the clock in last Sunday’s game, the Niners opted to boot their subsequent kickoff into the end zone and take a touchback instead of trying to get the Packers to waste some valuable time with a kickoff return. As Niners special teams coordinator Richard Hightower later explained, the decision to play it safe was a direct response to their scouting of Packers rookie Kylin Hill and the “respect” they had for his capabilities as a kick returner.
“We have a lot of respect for Hill,” Hightower said on September 29. “He had a 41-yard big return, explosive return the week before (against Detroit) where he got those guys to like the 46-yard line or something like that. It was half a field Aaron had to work with and they went down there and scored. So, (the) thought process on that is basically we’ve got a lot of respect for the guy and (want to) make them go longer than they have to.”
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Hill’s Return Skills Are Getting Recognized
Hill has been making his presence known on special teams through the first three weeks of his rookie season. While there hasn’t been much of a role for him in the Packers’ backfield alongside Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, the 2021 seventh-round pick has shown flashes of being a legitimate return weapon for the team with an average of 22 yards on five kickoff returns.
Hill’s longest return of the season — the 41-yarder that Hightower referenced — also helped the Packers pick up steam in their Week 2 win over the Lions. He dodged a few tackles and made it all the way up to the Packers’ 44-yard line, which was something the Niners knew ahead of time that they would like to avoid at all costs.
“It’s a discussion that we have during the week,” Hightower said. “We have it way before we get to that actual play. You try to do as many of those scenarios and situations that you can when you come down to it. At the end of the day, that kid has broken so many tackles and done such a good job in our personal opinion (that) we didn’t want to give him an opportunity to give our defense a short field there.”
Packers Still View Hill as a ‘Work in Progress’
The fact that the Packers have a seventh-round rookie finding ways to contribute on a weekly basis is impressive on its own. Hill provided a teaser of what he could offer in the preseason when he finished as Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded rookie running back and racked up 104 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. Even with Hill earning some early notoriety, though, the Packers don’t plan on getting ahead of themselves in the return game.
“He is a work in progress,” Packers special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton said after Week 2’s win over the Lions. “We have miles to go, but he’s doing a great job. When you turn on his college tape and you see the way he’s able to process things, read blocks, we felt like we could build around his skill set of his vision, being able to press and get vertical.”
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