2020 NFL Draft: Van Jefferson, K.J. Hill and the art of creating separation

K.J. Hill

Hill is a great technician because of his quickness and ability to manipulate defensive backs with his patience, head and shoulders. Let’s watch a few reps here.

On this rep early in the week at Mobile, Hill uses his quickness to set up his opponent, working an outside-in release to get into an inside stem. From there, Hill stacks the corner, meaning his opponent is in chase-down mode. If you slow down the clip, you can see Hill turn his head and shoulders inside, indicating he’s running a post to the middle of the field, but it’s part of his plan of attack. This fools the defensive back and he quickly snaps off his route to the corner, creating easy separation.

So we watched Hill work inside to get back outside on the last rep, and here it’s more simple. Because corners have now seen him do that, it’s in the back of their mind. Now, on this rep, Hill once again works into an inside stem off of his release. This gets the corner off-balance, since he was looking outside. With that quickness off the line of scrimmage, it’s catch-up mode once again. Hill finishes him off with a crisp cut to the inside and made it look easy.

This next rep is very different from the other two, but it’s just as mesmerizing to watch. What’s happening here? Well, Hill is being patient here off the line, waiting for the defensive back (in this case, Michigan’s Josh Metellus) to make a move. Since Hill is threatening outside with these strides, Metellus commits to the outside, believing Hill is using these steps to stutter and commit vertically. Instead, Hill is using that to create separation inside. He snaps this route off and explodes with his plant foot, once again creating separation in a different way.

For his last example here, we look again at day three of practice. To start the rep, Hill works an out-in-out release, and takes a jab inside, exploding off that plant foot to get into his stem outside. When he gets to the top of the route, in this case at the goal line, he has stacked defensive back Jeremy Chinn. The subtlety by Hill here is masterful. He sells the out by turning his head, shoulders, and hips in that direction only for a moment. This creates confusion for Chinn, and by that time, Hill has already created separation to the inside (unfortunately the QB missed him).

Hill is so good at bringing a plan of attack to the table as a route-runner. He can create separation in a multitude of ways. He might not play on the outside, but his ability as a slot receiver will entice plenty of teams in the draft.