Here’s the twist that has the league watching Miami’s next move: while the Dolphins have told teams they’re not moving Tyreek Hill, clubs are still calling and “monitoring his future” as a potential trade target, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. The context matters. Hill sat out Friday’s joint practice with an oblique issue, and even retired captain Terron Armstead, who says the Tua–Tyreek relationship is “very strong”, noted the offense “missed his presence and his playmaking ability” when he wasn’t on the field. Put that together with a rough QB1 tape, and you get front offices connecting dots: Miami’s leverage is high today, but availability, cap math, and red-zone execution have a way of shifting timelines in-season.

The real deal lands here: despite Miami’s public stance, multiple teams have identified Hill as a live trade watch, a premium WR1 whose status they continue to track even as the Dolphins resist inquiries, as Fowler reported on SportsCenter. One NFC personnel voices a different version of the question: Could he be available if the right offer hits? It mirrors the league’s temperature, and it’s not a theoretical interest; it’s ongoing monitoring of a 31-year-old All-Pro who remains Tua’s biggest stress-buster against two-high and pressure looks. Miami GM Chris Grier has previously signaled it would take a haul to pry Hill loose, but that’s precisely why teams are hovering now, before value calcifies once the real games start.

Armstead, for his part, tried to cool the off-field narrative, and did it with specifics. He set the table: days around both players, dinners, card games, and a locker-room vibe that felt like “old times” before he dropped the line that matters: “There’s nothing here, people… present day, the relationship looks the same and feels very strong”. Then came the pivot every coach hears in August: Chemistry is great, but availability is king. “Tyreek did not practice… they missed his presence,” Armstead said, a quiet acknowledgment that Miami’s passing ceiling is tied to No.10 tilting coverage every snap. Analysis: That’s exactly why teams are tracking his situation, elite gravity travels, and contenders pay for gravity.

Chicago’s defense provided the other half of the case study. The ball production was loud, Brisker, Byard, Edmunds, and the structure was familiar: squeeze the middle, close late windows, and make Miami win to the perimeter, and after the catch. Bears writers called it “absolute domination,” and the tape notes echoed it: numerous sacks, hurried throws, and leveraged zones baiting late eyes. Miami’s counter, historically, is motion, speed splits, and rhythm RPOs, and that’s where Hill’s speed forces false steps that turn five-yard throws into explosives. When he’s down or limited, the playbook narrows and the margin for error shrinks.

Zach Wilson briefly widened that margin. After Tua’s third pick, Wilson stepped in and hit a red-9 for six, a timely counterpunch that reset the sideline and validated Miami’s emphasis on situational execution from the QB2 spot. It didn’t move the depth chart, but it mattered for the room, a pressure valve after a defense-driven day, and a reminder that August reps build belief as much as cut-ups. For Tua, the Bears session becomes self-scout gold: protect the middle, speed up the eyes, and re-center on low red-zone discipline after two turnovers into tight windows.

Tua Tagovailoa–Tyreek Hill chemistry is solid, but Hill’s health keeps teams interested

Chicago’s back end had the receipts at Halas Hall, turning Tua Tagovailoa over three times and spiking the Dolphins’ rhythm in a joint session that felt more like a late-season test than an August install. “We wanted to set the tone early,” Bears safety Kevin Byard said after snagging one of those picks, and Chicago’s defense did just that with multiple sacks and two pick-sixes worth of juice in team periods. The stat that stuck with Miami’s day: Tagovailoa, who had just one interception all camp coming in, tripled that number in a single practice.

Chicago’s defensive blueprint will travel, too. Byard said the plan was to “set the tone,” and the Bears did it with interior disruption and disciplined trigger from the safeties, a template others will copy until Miami rips it up with explosives. The cleanest rip-up remains what it has been since 2022: Hill on the field, stressing landmarks before the snap and leveraging after it.

So the question loops back to that first scene: when a defense crowds the middle and dares the quarterback to win outside the numbers without his WR1, how much can scheme and timing mask the absence of elite speed? Miami believes the answer is “enough,” and Armstead believes the core connection is intact; the rest of the league is betting the margins are tighter than that, tight enough to keep asking about Tyreek Hill, just in case those margins turn into an opening.