In addressing the media on Wednesday, Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel made something perfectly clear.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill is going to be very involved with the offense, and he is not going to be traded. McDaniel said his receiver was recovering from offseason wrist surgery and will remain a vital cog for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa this season.
âTyreek (Hill) has done a great job of being proactive with when he got the surgery done and then making sure that he is able to do as much as he can with the team, which has very much included his daily participation in how he attacks all of our strength program, whether heâs able to run routes and not block, quarterbacks have gotten used to him getting routes run,” McDaniel said. “As we really train his way back into recovery of that hand, then heâll start catching the ball, but heâs been participating above and beyond from whatever he can do, he has been doing.â
Hill injured his wrist last season and played through the injury. He had the pins removed in a second procedure and has been participating to a limited extent in the OTA’s which are taking place this week in Miami Gardens.
Is the Noah Lyles/Tyreek Hill Race On?
There had been speculation that a race was going to be held between Hill and Olympic champion Noah Lyles. McDaniel did not want to hear anything about any race. He just wanted to know about how Hill was going to take part in the OTA’s this week and that he runs the correct routes.
âI have no idea, nor do I care,” McDaniel said. “First theoretically, if people are competing and itâs helping their training â as long as he doesnât train to be a sprinter and heâs running routes while heâs doing it, thatâs cool. Whether Iâm going to stand and say whether Iâll allow something â I donât even know where that stands nor did I know that it existed, so weâll cross that page. Right now, Iâm worried about OTA 2 and making sure that he aligns properly in formations before he runs routes and doesnât catch the ball.â
Dolphins’ Season Outlook
Hill is coming off his worst season as a member of the Miami Dolphins. He failed to reach 1,000 yards receiving, did not make the Pro Bowl, and Miami failed to make the playoffs. All firsts for Hill during his three-year tenure with the Dolphins.
The Cheetah caught 81 balls for 959 yards and only six touchdowns last season. In 2023, Hill caught 119 passes for 1,799 yards and a whopping 13 touchdowns en route to an All-Pro selection following the campaign.
With Miami losing defensive tackle Calais Campbell to free agency and left tackle Terron Armstead to retirement, McDaniel said he is going to be counting on every veteran, including Hill, to serve as team leaders this season. He knows it will be difficult to replace the locker room presence of guys like Campbell and Armstead.
“The way you do that is by really attacking the day in both how you approach your job, but how you approach your teammates and how they can count on you and what you can get out of them,” McDaniel said. “So you allow people to fill those voids authentically, but we very much go into this offseason feeling confident that there were numerous players ready to fill that that vacuum, because thatâs seeing that their opportunity on the team is more than just playing but also their roles in the locker room and how we are bonded together as a team.â
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