Tyreek Hill Gave Up On The Dolphins And They Should Give Up On Him

INDIANAPOLIS – There are difficult things NFL teams do to improve from one season to the next, and sometimes that means moving on from talented individuals to help the team. And that's why we need to discuss Tyreek Hill.

Hill is the best wide receiver on the Miami Dolphins. He strikes fear in the heart of most teams – except the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. And he's obviously somebody the Dolphins have valued and, yes, leaned on the last three seasons.

But Hill has got to go. It is time.

Tyreek Hill demands cop be fired after being detained. (Credit: Getty Images)

Hill More Cheerleader Than Leader

That's the only way these Dolphins should deal with a team captain who is more cheerleader than leader. It's how to handle a 31-year-old (Saturday) who still does immature things. And that's how to answer when a player who is seemingly always getting somewhere fast, simply stops playing.

Hill, a personable man who means well, is all of that. And all of that should be and would be on the trade block for most teams trying to make winning the priority over entertaining.

What do I mean? 

Hill is the $30 million-a-year player who hasn't helped the Dolphins win a playoff game in his three seasons with the team.

He's the player the Kansas City Chiefs traded to Miami for five draft picks in 2022 so he could become the NFL's highest-paid receiver (at the time) and take the Dolphins from a middling team to a championship contender.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - JANUARY 16: Tyreek Hill #10 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third quarter of the game in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium on January 16, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Chiefs Got Better Results Without Hill

Funny thing is, the Dolphins still aren't a championship contender despite having Hill. But the Chiefs won two consecutive Super Bowls and just played in a third without him.

The Chiefs moved on from Hill and got better. That's what the Dolphins need to do now. It's time.

The Dolphins, you should know, have given no indication that's what they intend to do.

They have a player who actually refused to play the final quarter of the team's 2024 season-finale and then talked about going elsewhere immediately afterward. But it's seemingly been treated as a minor misstep rather than the betrayal it was.

Hill, you should know, publicly walked back his voiced desire to get out of Miami by blaming frustration in a difficult moment. Sorry, sir, we cannot unknow what's really in your heart and head when things get rough.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 05: Tyreek Hill #10 of the Miami Dolphins runs the ball against Brandin Echols #26 of the New York Jets during the first quarter at MetLife Stadium on January 05, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Time For Dolphins To Cut Bait

The misdeed to stay on the bench when the offense was on the field against the New York Jets spoke clearly. In a difficult moment, this great pass-catcher threw up his hands only to surrender. 

This great speedster turned into a frontrunner.

Did I tell you Hill is a team captain? He's supposed to be an example. But that moment, indeed most of last season, was only an example from Hill of how not to be a leader.

So it is time for the Dolphins to add by subtracting. Find a receiver-needy team that will give up maybe a first- or second-round pick for Hill. It shouldn't be that difficult in a year when the draft isn't replete with speed receivers. 

Then the Dolphins can cut bait – much like the Bills did last year with Stefon Diggs, the Raiders did with Davante Adams, and the 49ers are doing this year with Deebo Samuel.

Without Hill, the Dolphins could escape their smurf-dominated receiver corps and get someone bigger, stronger, and perhaps tougher.

Nick Sirianni Apologizes After Taunting Eagles Fans After Win Over Browns 

Sirianni: Can't Have WR Room Look Same

No less than Nick Sirianni – the coach who just won the Super Bowl – said this week that building a receiver room is like building a basketball team. 

"You don't want all point guards," he said. "You want a point guard, you want a shooting guard, you want a forward, you want a center, all those because of all the roles you're asking them to do."

The Dolphins can use a good injection of size and toughness all up and down their lineup. The entire league is aware they have a lot of speed, but not an abundance of grit. Replace some of that speed with size. And strength.

And strength of character.

Sadly, this column is probably a distant cry in the wilderness to the Dolphins. That's because this club reacts to problems rather than anticipates them – like the backup quarterback and offensive line issues last year.

So, the Dolphins probably think Hill tied his career-low touchdown mark and missed 1,000 yards for the first time since 2019 because of something not his fault.

Mike McDaniel used to go days without showering. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Hill Healthy To Start Season

Maybe it was quarterback Tua Tagovailoa being injured. Maybe it was Hill himself being injured.

"He had surgery on his wrist," coach Mike McDaniel reported this week at the NFL Scouting Combine. "It was a ligament issue; it wasn’t a broken wrist. He’s scheduled to be running very soon, in which he’ll be relying upon that in his training until he can catch the football, which will be more around summer time going into training camp."

How does that address the moment in which Hill, in uniform, quit on the team to finish last season, unless McDaniel is really advertising how healthy the player he really should trade will be next season?

The problem is that whispers out of Miami suggest that Hill remains in good standing. Some people in the organization actually boast about how engaged he was with teammates last season – including in the very game he quit on them.

This is a warped view of reality that only a few people in the organization see as flawed. And it speaks to a culture in need of repair.

Hill's Last Playoff Performance A Disaster

The Dolphins have a reputation around the NFL of being a weak-minded team that lacks resilience. 

Their record confirms that's exactly what they are. They beat up on a lot of middling or poor teams and think they're climbing to some height. Then they bomb against winning teams.

Hill is part of that. And his playoff performance against the Chiefs in January 2024 was an illustration of that. L'Jarius Sneed smothered Hill in a physical whipping that even the NFL noted on its social media feed.

Hill's response to Sneed's domination?

"Jammed my ahh to Cancun," he joked, referring to the end of his season.

Funny. But not the reaction the Dolphins should want as a representation of their mindset.

Maybe some team that already boasts toughness and grit can add a finesse player like Hill and improve. The Dolphins need to go the other direction and find players with resoluteness and tenacity and resolve.

Those are the traits that keep people from quitting when things get hard.