Agent said Tyreek Hill will be ready to start 2026 season. Is that true?
Tyreek Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus made headlines with quite the prognosis of when his client will return to play.
“The surgery went well,” Rosenhaus told WSVN 7 Sports’ Josh Moser. “All of the torn ligaments, the injuries, went back in a place naturally. There’s no nerve damage, no blood flow issues, no broken bones. The cartilage is fine. The goal is for him to be ready to play next season. There was only one surgical procedure. There was some concern it might be more than one surgery. Everything went as well as we could have hoped for. We’ll pray for Tyreek to have a speedy recovery. We know he will do a great job in his rehab. The goal is for him to be back to himself for the start of next season.”
Other doctors, however, are split on the subject. While some believe Rosenhaus’s prognosis to be true, others chalk it up to the legendary agent just doing his job: assuring all 32 teams that his client will be healthy enough to start the season. Both sides, however, should be taken with a grain of salt as neither the supporters nor detractors of Rosenhaus’s statement have physically seen Hill’s X-rays after the Miami Dolphins wideout dislocated his knee and reportedly tore multiple ligaments, including his ACL, during Monday night’s 27-21 win over the New York Jets.
The most vocal nonbeliever of Rosenhaus’s prognosis comes via social media in Dr. David Chao, better known as the Pro Football Doc, who served as the NFL head team doctor for more than 17 years. Known for his live injury analysis, Chao said Rosenhaus projection was “not medical reality.”
“Dislocated knee means two if not three ligaments torn at least,” Chao explained in a video posted Wednesday afternoon. “And in my NFL experience, orthopedic experience, no knee surgery done within 24 hours is definitive and final. It’s always staged for later reconstruction, including ACL and otherwise. That is why, medically, I still believe he will need more surgeries.”
Chao then used current Houston Texans tailback Nick Chubb, who dislocated his knee in Sept. 2023 while a member of the Cleveland Browns, as an example.
“Remember Nick Chubb?” Chao said. “Said to only need one surgery. Just MCL. Had two surgeries.”
Dr. Donald Mazur, however, disagrees. A nationally recognized sports medicine surgeon who specializes in ACL repair and knee reconstruction, Mazur believes Hill avoided the two biggest areas of concern — nerve and cartilage damage — based on his research. That means a return at the start of the 2026 season remains a possibility.
“I don’t know if in 1976 the answer is the same,” Mazur said, comparing what happened to Hill to “a hand grenade going off in your knee.”
“Treating these things has really evolved,” he continued.
Now whether he will be the same player in 2026 should be considered a totally different question.
“There is a mental aspect to it and that’s different for everybody else,” Mazur said. “Some people it does take them two years. In my experience with a multiligament tear is about a year. Certainly, there’s some apprehension in the beginning just based off of going through that trauma.”
Regardless, Hill’s athletic profile gives him a realistic shot at being ready at the start of 2026.
“He has resources available to him that the common man doesn’t have,” Mazur said, explaining that most people will also have to continue to work despite the ACL tear. “His job will be to rehab. So you have a guy that’s an elite physical specimen who has an injury and then has resources to train and recover that most people don't have. I think it’s very realistic that this guy comes back.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 4:26 PM.
