Tyreek Hill’s Fate Confirmed as Tua Tagovailoa Sends Clear Message to Dolphins Locker Room – Insider

Tyreek Hill’s 2024 season marked his lowest output in years, with just 81 catches for 959 yards and six touchdowns. The Miami Dolphins built their offense around speed and explosion, and no player embodied that more than the Cheetah. Throughout his career, Hill has made both positive and negative headlines. The All-Pro receiver stated that contortions like the one he had last season, which included taking himself out in the second half of Miami’s regular-season finale against the New York Jets, couldn’t go on… If he wants to remain with this roster. 

During the latest episode of the NFL on NBC, Mike Florio and Chris Simms offered a sober take akin to what Devante Adams experienced when his production declined. And if the Dolphins falter early and Tyreek Hill doesn’t post big numbers, his season could parallel Adams’s regression. “Tyreek didn’t play much at all in the pre-season. And Tua developed chemistry with other receivers. I still think if the Dolphins struggle out of the gates, and Tyreek Hill is not having big numbers, he is going to be the Devante Adams this year. That is, if they struggle, that’s ingredient 1. Because he’s not going to be there in 2026,” Florio said.

For three straight years, he stretched defenses and turned Tua Tagovailoa’s quick release into fireworks. In his first season, Tyreek was off and running with 119 receptions for 1,710 yards and 7 TDs. He kept those numbers up, complementing Tua seamlessly in 2023: 119 receptions, 1,799 yards, 13 touchdowns. But there’s a pattern here, hard to ignore. Both Tua and Tyreek missed time, and the offense faltered. 

It was the first time since 2019, when Hill failed to hit 1,000 yards. He also missed the Pro Bowl and playoffs. His per-game output slid from superstar level to middle-tier. The advanced stats backed it up: fewer yards after the catch, weaker efficiency per route, and a fall in designed targets from top-five in the league to outside the top-30. After the season ended, he underwent wrist surgery for ligament damage. And missed most of the offseason while recovering.

Chris Simms added, “We do know they’ve made a lot of changes to their team. It does feel like they’re tinkering on the edge here of either disaster or maybe changing coaches or whatever. We’ll see where it goes. You got a quarterback that’s making a ton of money, and we’re worried about his health. So we’ve orchestrated a whole offense so he doesn’t have to hold the ball or take kicks that way. But saying all of that, they still have some guys that are big-time difference makers, and that’s where you just go ‘huh?’”

Florio’s comparison to Adams wasn’t casual. Adams, once the model of week-to-week reliability, saw his own role shift after team instability in Las Vegas. Even while producing over 1,000 yards in 2024, his output no longer dictated outcomes. So, it’s clear: when a receiver’s volume dips and his team’s trajectory stalls, his influence fades fast. Age adds another layer.

At 31, Hill is stepping into the window when most wideouts begin to lose a step. He’s still one of the league’s most electric athletes, but as Adams has shown, even elite receivers need stability and volume to stay dominant. The Dolphins face a season where everything could swing either way. But for that to happen, the Tua-Tyreek duo has to spark offense to life.

Tua Tagovailoa’s message to Tyreek Hill’s “I’m Out” remark

With Tua on the field, Hill remains dangerous. Without him, his scoring pace nearly halves. Hill has caught 50 catches for 567 yards and has scored 1 touchdown in 10 games for the Dolphins without Tua. That tether makes his production fragile. But it’s a reality the Phins know too well, given Tua’s injury history. Add in the fact that Hill was not named a captain this year, a subtle but telling shift in locker room standing, and the doubts begin to pile up. 

Miami’s QB1 addressed the fallout this preseason, making clear that Hill’s remark wasn’t something easily brushed aside and said, “A lot of people that follow football, that follow the Miami Dolphins, that follow Tyreek, that are fans of his, everyone has seen that. So, when you say something like that, you don’t just come back from that with, ‘Hey, my bad.’ You’ve got to work that relationship up. You’ve got to build everything back up again.”

When Tyreek Hill blurted out “I’m out, bro” following the Miami Dolphins’ Week 18 loss to the Jets last season, it wasn’t just a frustrated star venting. It was a statement that landed heavily inside the locker room and among fans who had watched the Dolphins’ playoff hopes collapse.

“At the end of the day, I need those valuable reps with Tua,” Hill also said in 2024. Hill has since apologized, publicly taking accountability for the comment and acknowledging the damage it caused. “I literally heard that all offseason, some kind of way on YouTube shorts because my kids stay on YouTube. And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to put that out there for my boys to see,” Hill said during the training camp in July 2025. Yet, the decision to strip him of his team captaincy ahead of the 2025 season underscored that words carry weight within the organization. But as Tua said himself, Tyreek has to work his way up. And it starts against the Colts on September 7.