Tyreek Hill opened the door and the Dolphins don’t want it to close just yet.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said he and coach Mike McDaniel had “productive” conversations with Tyreek Hill on Monday after the star receiver said “I’m out, bro” on Sunday.
Grier said Hill “never asked for a trade with me” in the conversation.
“In a frustrating season, he was very emotional in a game where we had a chance coming back from 2-6 and I would say that’s probably the thing I’m most proud of, the players and Mike and the coaching staff that we were 2-6 and were playing Week 18 to potentially sneak in the playoffs,” Grier said Tuesday during a post-season press conference. “I think all of that with him and playing through his injury just kind of bubbled to a point and from our conversations … we had productive conversations.”
Hill opened the door for his potential Miami exit with eye-opening comments made after the Dolphins missed the playoffs for the first time in his three-year tenure.
The veteran has long said he wants to end his career in Miami but did an about-face, indicating that maybe it’s better if he heads elsewhere.
“This is my first time I haven’t been in the playoffs, man. So, I just got to do what’s best for me and my family,” Hill started to say. “If that’s here or wherever the case may be, I’m finna open that door for myself. I’m opening the door. I’m out, bro. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day I gotta do what’s best for my career because I’m too much of a compeтιтor to be just out there.”
Not helping the matter is that McDaniel indicated that Hill pulled himself out of Sunday’s loss to the Jets.
While Hill said McDaniel “kind of” pulled him out of the game, the coach instead said he had been told Hill could not play due to his left wrist issue.
“I was informed that he was unavailable right before a drive,” McDaniel said in his postgame press conference. “I was not informed that it was a new injury. And you know, I think at that point in time, my focus was on the players and I didn’t take the time to go and try to figure out more into that. There was guys on the field that were competing, we were trying to win a game, so my focus was there.”
McDaniel acknowledged some unease had festered between the pair, including Sunday’s exit, when asked if their relationship could be fixed.
“The compeтιтive spirit of his can represent postgame, especially in a season or a game that nobody likes, it can allude to a relationship being one way,” the third-year head said. “I was very direct with him. He was very honest. It was great terms that we were discussing. Discussed multiple things, including without wavering, that it’s not acceptable to leave the game and won’t be tolerated in the future and he embraced accountability and I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily anything to fix as much as we had to clear the air in a rough and tumultuous season.”
Hill has not further commented on his remarks since Sunday, although he briefly changed his X profile picture to a pH๏τo of him imposed over Antonio Brown from the moment Brown left the field in the middle of a Buccaneers’ win over the Jets in what proved to be his final game in the NFL.
There are two years remaining on Hill’s contract — he previously said he’d retired after the 2025 season — and some teams surely would be happy to welcome him in pursuit of a championship, even off a down season.
Cowboys star Micah Parsons has already tweeted at Hill in hope of luring him to Dallas.