Tag: Dolphins

Tyreek Hill says he’s ‘always’ second-guessing decision to leave Chiefs

Tyreek Hill says he can’t help but wonder if he made the right decision to push for the trade that sent him to Miami.

In the nearly three years since Tyreek Hill was traded from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins during the 2022 offseason, his former team has won two Super Bowls and has a chance to make it three straight on Sunday.

Hill, 30, achieved personal success upon arriving in Miami, becoming the first player in NFL history to record 1,700 receiving yards in back-to-back seasons. But the Dolphins’ lack of postseason success has boiled over into frustration and drama.

After Miami finished the 2024 season with an 8-9 record and Hill missed the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career, the receiver couldn’t help but admit earlier this week that he’s wondered what things would be like if he never left Kansas City.

“You always have thoughts like that,” Hill said Friday on PFT Live. “I mean, I’m human. So at the end of the day, you’re always thinking in the back of your head like, man, did I make the right decision? But at the same time, though, the way I was raised, I’m always thinking what God has planned for me in the future. And I’m blessed with what I got. I’m blessed with the situation God has put me in.”

While Hill said that he’ll always support his former Chiefs teammates, including on Sunday when they face the Philadelphia Eagles, he also says it’s not easy to watch the team have so much success without him.

“I come to the Super Bowl every year man and it’s tough,” Hill said. “I’m still going for the Chiefs. It’s tough for me to just go to the game and just be in this environment and not be playing in it. At the same time, I got to be mindful of the future I’m trying to build. I got to be mindful of just everything that I want to be a part of whenever I’m not playing football.

“So it sucks not playing. You know how it is as a competitor. So yeah, it’s a whole lot of things that goes through your mind on these weekends.”

Hill’s exit from the Chiefs wasn’t entirely voluntary. Amid frustrations about his contract, Hill and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, played hardball in negotiations with Kansas City that eventually led to the receiver being dealt to Miami.

The receiver got the big money contract he wanted from the Dolphins, and the Chiefs got the draft capital and cap space they needed to put together a roster that may become the NFL’s first ever three-peat champion.

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How much will Tyler Huntley get in free agency? Case for, case against Dolphins re-signing QB

Did Tyler Huntley show enough to compete for a backup role in 2025, or should the Dolphins look elsewhere?

When Tyler Huntley joined the Miami Dolphins in September, he hardly had time to acclimate to his new squad before he was thrust into action.

With Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve, Skylar Thompson’s time as the replacement starter lasted little more than half a game. Huntley started the next three for the Dolphins and couldn’t do much to get the team’s offense on track. The team averaged 12.3 points and Huntley completed only 59.1 percent of his passes.

Two months later, Huntley looked like a different quarterback in his return to the starting lineup. He completed 84.6 percent of his passes with a pair of touchdowns (one passing, one rushing) in a 20-3 win against the Cleveland Browns.

It seemed the Dolphins had their backup quarterback of the future.

But two interceptions and four fumbles from Huntley in a Week 18 loss dragged Miami right back into its quarterback quandary. So should Huntley be back to compete for the No. 2 role in 2025?

The case for re-signing Huntley

As Tyreek Hill so eloquently put it in December, Huntley “came in at the beginning of the season and he was just raw dogging it.” After leading the team to a win at the end of the December, Huntley said it was nice to “actually know what the motions” are in the Dolphins offense.

It hardly seems fair to judge Huntley for his performance in the first three starts near the beginning of the 2024 season. And although the expectation was that he’d play much better in Week 18, the quarterback was still trying to operate an offense he learned on the fly after spending the offseason and training camp elsewhere.

Given a year of work with the Dolphins coaching staff, it’s not unreasonable to think Huntley would be capable of providing more performances like his Week 17 showing in Cleveland.

Should Huntley be the only option behind Tagovailoa heading into camp? Absolutely not.

But the Dolphins invested three months of time into a quarterback who showed enough promise to warrant a shot at continuing that development in Miami.

The case for letting Huntley walk

The Dolphins didn’t reach the playoffs for the first time in the McDaniel era for several reasons, but none larger than the team’s backup quarterback situation.

Miami’s offense crumbled to pieces in its six games without Tagovailoa and that included Huntley’s turnover-filled disaster in the Week 18 finale.

If Miami hopes to avoid a similar fiasco in the future, an investment at the quarterback position is a must. In January, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told reporters the team was in the market for “a number of topflight backup quarterbacks” in the 2024 offseason.

Acquiring an experienced veteran — Marcus Mariota, perhaps? — and/or drafting a young passer should be a priority.

Huntley competing in camp would be fine if it came without a price tag. It won’t, though. While bringing Huntley won’t break the bank, he probably won’t sign for minimum wage either.

The Dolphins need to be deliberate about their spending and investing in Huntley would mean dishing out money for more of the same at the position.

Prediction

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Dolphins told Huntley late in the 2024 season that they were interested in bringing him back in 2025. Maybe his Week 18 implosion changed things. Probably not, though.

Huntley signed a one-year, $1.3 million deal with the Cleveland Browns last offseason and is probably just a little more expensive this time around.

Prediction: Dolphins re-sign Huntley to two-year, $5 million deal

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Dolphins legend to throw first pitch at Marlins’ Opening Day

The Dolphins’ GOAT will get the Marlins’ season started next month.

Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Miami Marlins’ Opening Day game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 27, the Marlins announced Saturday.

“I’m honored by the invitation to throw the ceremonial first pitch for the Miami Marlins on Opening Day,” Marino said in a statement. “It will be very special for me to return to the site of many memories and where the community made it home for me. Being back for this special moment, surrounded by the great fans of South Florida.”

Marino, 63, is no stranger to throwing out first pitches. The Pro Football Hall of Famer has done it at several ballparks, including PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Yankee Stadium in New York. Marino also threw out the first pitch on the Marlins’ Opening Day in 2005 and 2014.

The former Dolphins quarterback has spent the last decade in a special advisory role with the franchise, and regularly pops into the team’s quarterback room to provide input.

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Tyreek Hill says he regrets ‘I’m out’ comments: ‘I fully take them back’

Tyreek Hill did damage control on Radio Row on Friday, a month after he talked about leaving the Dolphins.

Tyreek Hill made his way through Super LIX’s Radio Row on Friday and did his best to undo some of the discord he sowed with the Miami Dolphins in January.

About a month after the eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver told reporters “I’m out” and that he’s “opening the door” to leave Miami, Hill did multiple interviews and took it all back.

“I’m taking full accountability for what I said,” Hill said on PFT Live. I don’t deserve to say anything like that. Miami Dolphins … they’re paying me to play there, they’ve been very good to me. So why am I going to go out and say the things I said? I fully take them back. I’m going to take full accountability and come back next year — hoping to still be there — and bust my tail for the team, for the guys, for the fans, for the whole city. I want to stay with the Dolphins.”

He reiterated that point in an interview with Kay Adams of FanDuel’s Up and Adams Show.

“I don’t want to go nowhere,” Hill told Adams. “I love it, my family loves it, kids absolutely love being on the beach every morning. It’s an amazing thing. We are building something really special in Miami. We made it to the playoffs the first two years. Obviously, this year was hard. But if guys continue to buy in to what Coach [Mike McDaniel] is building, and the culture that he’s trying to build, it’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

On Thursday, Dolphins offensive tackle Terron Armstead said in an interview that Hill has “mending to do” to earn back the trust and confidence of his teammates.

In his interview with Adams, Hill said he plans to do so by “going to practice every day, busting my tail, showing up to meetings on time” and “doing things the right way.” But he singled out quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for an apology.

“Tua, he’s my guy, always will be my guy, no matter what,” Hill told Adams. “He understands my frustration. We all want to win. Tua, he’s another competitor. He’s a hell of a competitor, a lot of people don’t know that. I’m looking forward to just us continuing to build our relationship and even more. This is my public apology to you, Tua. I love you, bro.”

In a January press conference, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel told reporters that he expressed to Hill in a meeting that “it’s not acceptable to leave a game and won’t be tolerated in the future.”

Hill is due to count $27.7 million against Miami’s salary cap in 2025, but that number would climb to $56 million if he’s released or $28.3 million if he’s traded before the beginning of June. A trade after the start of June would drop the dead money hit to $12.7 million.

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Terron Armstead says Tyreek Hill has ‘mending to do’ with teammates

Tyreek Hill has work to do to earn his teammates’ trust and confidence, says Dolphins tackle Terron Armstead.

Tyreek Hill has some work to do if he’s going to earn back his Miami Dolphins teammates’ trust and confidence, according to veteran offensive lineman Terron Armstead.

“He really wants to win, so when he doesn’t, it bothers him to the depths of his core,” Armstead said of Hill in an interview with talkSPORT. “I know the words that he said after our last game. I can’t excuse him for it, ’cause as a captain and as a leader, you can’t do it. So he has some mending to do with some relationships.

“I talked to him immediately after and he was regretful. He knew ‘I can’t go there, I can’t do that.’ As we rode together going to the plane, he was immediately aware — especially in today’s age, once you say anything or put out a tweet, it’s all over the world now.”

If Hill was regretful for saying he was ready to leave Miami, he didn’t act like it on social media. The receiver temporarily changed his profile picture on X to an image with his head superimposed on the body of Antonio Brown, who infamously quit on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the middle of a game in 2022.

A couple weeks after the Dolphins season ended, Hill said on a Twitch stream, “I deserve to feel like that.”

What Armstead also didn’t mention in his interview is that Hill appeared to quit on his squad in the third quarter of the Dolphins’ Week 18 finale.

Earlier this week, Raheem Mostert shrugged off the situation. In an interview, the Dolphins running back said Hill “was just fed up at that moment” and other players felt the same way but “didn’t have the courage to say it like he did.”

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It sounds like Terron Armstead plans to return, but is that what the Dolphins want?

Terron Armstead sounds like he’s planning to be back in 2025, but his $22.8 million salary cap hit is a bit of a headache.

Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Terron Armstead has contemplated the idea of retirement in the last few offseasons before eventually deciding to return each time. It sure sounds like he’s ready to do the same in 2025.

“We have enough. We feel like we have the talent to go win,” Armstead said of the Dolphins in an interview with Pro Football Talk on Thursday. “I think us locking in on the details, on the small things … we have to make that something that’s a huge emphasis moving forward in order to win big games.”

Armstead later told David Bearman of Pro Football Network that he’ll meet with the Dolphins “pretty soon” to discuss his future and added “I feel great.”

All that points to a player who seems motivated to return in 2025 and help the Dolphins win. But is that what Miami wants?

In the second round of the 2024 NFL draft, the Dolphins drafted Patrick Paul, who they presumably envision to be Armstead’s successor at left tackle. Austin Jackson, who was extended about a year ago, is holding down the fort on the right side.

While another year of Paul waiting in the wings behind one of the NFL’s best offensive linemen isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Armstead’s $22.8 million salary cap hit in 2025  is a headache. The Dolphins are among the most cap-crunched teams entering this offseason and they could clear $15 million by releasing Armstead with a post-June 1 designation or by trading him after the start of June.

On the field, the 33-year-old tackle has continued to be a top-flight lineman. He earned an 89.4 grade from PFF this season, third highest of his five-time Pro Bowl career, and No. 1 on the Dolphins roster in 2024.

But injuries have been a constant for Armstead throughout his career. He sat out two games in 2024 and was sidelined for stretches in another five games. In 12 years in the NFL, Armstead has never played more than 15 games in a season.

Still, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel hasn’t been in a hurry to part with Armstead.

“What a huge piece of our team he is,” McDaniel said in December. “Just in terms of where we started off and where our mindset is in tough times or in good times. He’s one of the guys that everyone looks to. You’re always hopeful for [him to return]. I’m not taking him for granted for any moment either.”

Miami could also restructure Armstead’s deal and move as much as $9.5 million in salary cap hits further down the road. An extension could push the savings up to as much as $10.2 million. While the bill will eventually come due, that may prove to be the best course of action if Armstead decides he’s ready to stick around another season.

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Former Dolphins WR, 2-time Super Bowl champ dies at age 81

Another member of the undefeated Dolphins squad of 1972 passed this week.

Howard Twilley died at age 81, according to his alma mater, the University of Tulsa. No cause of death was given.

Twilley was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy during his time at Tulsa before he was picked by the Dolphins in the 12th round of the 1966 AFL draft. While he was also selected in 14th round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, Twilley chose Miami where he spent his entire 11-year professional career.

He recorded 212 receptions, 3,064 yards, and 23 touchdowns in regular season play with the Dolphins, along with another 13 receptions for 186 yards and a touchdown in the playoffs. His sole postseason touchdown was a 28-yard reception in the first quarter of Super Bowl VII, which Miami won 14-7 to cap its undefeated 1972 season.

Twilley is one of only two players, along with offensive tackle Norm Evans, who played on both the inaugural 1966 Dolphins team as well as the undefeated team in 1972.

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Twilley is the 23rd member of the 1972 team who has passed.

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Dolphins OLB finishes 5th for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year

Two Rams and two Eagles finished ahead of Chop Robinson in the DROY race.

Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Chop Robinson finished fifth in the race for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. The award instead went to Los Angeles Rams pass rusher Jared Verse.

Robinson, 22, earned 74 votes (including four second-place votes), which was 22 short of the Rams’ Braden Fiske and 17 short of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Cooper DeJean for a spot in the top three. Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell finished second place with the top two well ahead of the rest of the field.

The Dolphins’ 2024 first-round pick had a slow start to the year and didn’t record his first career sack until November. But he was a star down the stretch with 42 quarterback pressures in his last nine games of the year.

Robinson finished the season with six sacks and eight tackles for loss. Verse had 4.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, and earned Pro Bowl honors.

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Chop Robinson describes his ‘welcome to the league’ moment

Chop Robinson said a four-time Pro Bowler was “just terrorizing” him every play during his rookie season.

Chop Robinson had a slow start to his rookie year with the Miami Dolphins. His first sack didn’t come until November and along the way he was “terrorized” by a Buffalo Bills four-time Pro Bowler.

“Dion Dawkins … he gave me my welcome to the league moment,” Robinson told The Athletic’s Dianna Russini on Thursday. “I was going against him — I mean, both games he gave me a welcome to the league moment. I was just going against him every single play I lined up on him and he was just terrorizing me. I didn’t think –seeing him on film, he moved good — but when you’re out there on the field and you’re going against him, he moves just as good as I can getting off the ball.”

In the Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Bills in Week 2, Robinson managed to record two pressures, including one against Dawkins. Six weeks later, the rookie got his first career sack by bringing down Josh Allen in a 30-27 loss. Robinson pushed Dawkins back into the quarterback to make the play.

While the rookie says it was his toughest matchup, his moderate success in the Week 8 rematch served as a springboard for a tremendous second half of his 2024 season.

Robinson racked up 42 pressures in the last nine games of the year — second most in the league over that stretch behind only the Cleveland Browns’ reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett.

It was a run of pass rushing success that Robinson himself wasn’t sure he’d be able to pull off earlier in the year.

“When I first came in I thought I wasn’t going to be able to survive the whole season,” Robinson told Russini. “Just a mental thing. Just going out there every single day, everybody competing. It’s a job now, it’s not just college so it was a big change. But once I got comfortable, I enjoyed every second of it.”

Robinson finished 2024 with six sacks and eight tackles for loss.

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Dolphins’ top 2025 draft prospects: Toledo DT Darius Alexander

Zach Sieler is the only Dolphins defensive lineman under contract in 2025. Could Darius Alexander be a long-term solution?

At 6’4, 310 pounds, with top-end speed for his position, Toledo defensive lineman Darius Alexander has the explosive ability to be disruptive in the backfield.

Alexander is a powerful and athletic tackle who has the speed that the Dolphins covet. The extremely quick lineman could be an immediate impact player as a three-down tackle.

His draft projection has been on the rise since his performance at the Senior Bowl. Alexander was one of the biggest winners in Mobile, Ala. and may have climbed a round or even made himself a top 50 prospect.

Alexander earned First-Team All-MAC honors in 2024, finishing his final collegiate season with 40 total tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, five passes defended, and an interception. In 57 career games, he tallied 127 total tackles, 22 for loss, nine sacks, and 13 passes defended.

Position: Defensive tackle
Projected round: 2nd round
Height: 6’4
Weight: 310

Fit for Miami

The Dolphins have a few impending free agents on the defensive line, including Calais Campbell, Benito Jones, and Da’Shawn Hand. Veteran Zach Sieler could use some help should Campbell officially retire and Alexander could be a perfect three-technique, three-down tackle for the Dolphins to plug in right away.

Alexander can pair with Sieler on the Miami line. With Sieler coming off back-to-back 10-sack seasons, adding Alexander could be beneficial for both the Miami run and pass defense.

Bottom line

Miami didn’t miss a beat on the defensive line after losing Christian Wilkins in free agency, thanks to the arrival of Campbell. But after his 17th NFL season, Campbell’s return is far from a lock.

Even if Campbell decides to go another round in 2025, Alexander could still be in play as a long-term solution. The Dolphins could use a player with his power and speed as a disruptive force against the run with pass-rush potential.

One thing is for sure, should Campbell call it a career, Miami will need to address the defensive line in the draft sooner than later. Despite coming from a MAC school in Toledo, the Dolphins would be wise to consider Alexander on Day 2 of the 2025 NFL draft.

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