Dave Hyde: There's one way to end all these Tyreek Hill trade reports

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Aug 12, 2025

Published in Football

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It’s not Tyreek Hill refusing to play last year, not his demanding a trade, not his showing up late to practices, not quarterback Tua Tagovailoa saying their relationship still needs work, not the $15.85 million roster bonus he’s due this month, certainly not any of the off-field drama he brings — none of this is why the Miami Dolphins’ top player remains at the center of trade speculation.

It’s the Dolphins offense that didn’t work last year.

It’s the Dolphins season many expect to sink this year.

It’s the top-shelf talent Hill remains at 31, too, that’s causing NFL general managers to circle like buzzards in August, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

All true, too, a league executive confirmed.

“You could say people are sitting back, waiting and seeing what happens,” the executive said. “That’s not an uncommon thing this time of year.”

It’s not just Hill, he said. Several players are in his wait-and-see file. The way the Dolphins end this talk is simple: Win. Make this offense work. Use his talent.

The Dolphins didn’t trade Hill this offseason because of that talent. They also believed his promises to be on time to meetings and to play better in the sandbox with teammates. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, not Hill, became the priority to trade for such team-culture reasons.

The larger issue regarding Hill is a Dolphins season that Vegas oddsmakers have at 8.5 wins on its over-under bet. If they can’t get over that bar and into the playoffs, that means this offense isn’t producing enough again.

This gets to coach Mike McDaniel’s offseason homework. When you pay the quarterback and two receivers maximum contracts, they have to produce big plays to equal the strategic and financial investment.

The Dolphins didn’t produce enough big plays last year. They hardly threw downfield. They were a track team of receivers running 5-yard sprints.

Other teams have made this combination work. Philadelphia has two highly-paid receivers, a quarterback in the similar $50 million club and won the Super Bowl. But it had the league’s second-ranked running game that was more its offensive identity.

Cincinnati is the better comparison to the Dolphins. It had two top-paid receivers, the 31st-ranked running game and Joe Burrow threw touchdowns at will, the opposing two-deep defense be damned.

Why couldn’t the Dolphins do that last year? Did the offensive line not hold blocks to allow deeper patterns? Did Tagovailoa need to release the ball quickly to avoid injury? Did defenses play deep because the Dolphins couldn’t run the ball?

This is the puzzle McDaniel worked on this offseason. He came up with the cheat-motion step for Hill and Jaylen Waddle to shake pressing cornerbacks two years ago. Is there similarly simple answer waiting in the opener?

Getting this offense back to big plays is the top demand of this season. That has gotten lost this summer in the secondary and offensive-line questions. But Hill, Waddle and Tagovailoa aren’t worth their big money if they aren’t making big plays.

Face it, if they don’t produce, then they’d have to consider trading Hill if a worthy offer is made.

The Dolphins could keep Waddle, who needs to show he’s worth the investment, and the Washingtons, Malik and Tahj, who showed something in the first preseason game.

None of them have Hill’s talent. But Hill’s talent is precisely why this trade cloud hovers above the Dolphins.

“I have talked to a few teams who are at least monitoring his future a little bit,” Fowler reported.

The Dolphins have a $58 million salary-cap hit for Hill next season, too. So, they either re-do his hefty contract or move on from him. And if this offense isn’t working …

What could the Dolphins get for him? A second-round pick? The league executive wouldn’t guess.

“Depends on a lot of things — how he looks, if more than one team wants him, money,” he said.

None of this is what a team hoping to surprise the league wants to hear in mid-August. But there’s one way for the Dolphins to wipe away these ongoing trade reports.

It’s for Hill to be the kind of teammate he talked of being at the start of training camp.

It’s for this big-play offense to work.

It’s mainly for the Dolphins to quiet all the national noise around them by having the kind of good season they believe they can have.