League reaction on Dolphins’ Hill trade: ‘They should be throwing parties all night’
Nuggets on Tyreek Hill, what he brings the Dolphins, insight from his agent and the aftermath of his acquisition by the Dolphins, who released Jesse Davis and Allen Hurns on Thursday:
▪ To put the speed of this Dolphins offense in perspective, consider these factoids from Next Gen Stats:
Of the three players who ran the fastest last season, two now play for the Dolphins.
Hill led the league by averaging 15.38 miles per hour per touch.
Waddle was third at 14.48.
Second? The player that new coach Mike McDaniel had in San Francisco – Deebo Samuel, at 15.24.
“The Dolphins found their Deebo and it’s a faster Deebo,” NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt said. McDaniel “now has a guy that’s faster and he has two of them!”
Then there’s this: Since 2018, Hill leads the NFL with 45 touches as a ball carrier reaching 20-plus mph, 28 more than the next closest player (Saquon Barkley).
And this: Since 2016, Hill has 26 plays of 50 or more yards. That’s the same number of those types of plays that the Dolphins have as a franchise since 2016.
And remember that new running back Raheem Mostert produced the two fastest plays by an NFL running back in 2020. Heck, even left tackle Terron Armstead posted the fastest 40 time ever by a left tackle at the NFL Combine.
Veteran NFL running back Kerryon Johnson tweeted: “Ain’t no way I’m chasing down Tyreek and Waddle…..Praying for a run play and then having to chase down Raheem [Mostert] and [Chase] Edmonds. Praying for everybody’s hamstrings.”
▪ Some pundits have said that Tua Tagovailoa needs to throw deep a lot more to maximize Hill. That would help, but Hill does much of his damage with long runs after short catches.
As former running back and NFL Network analyst Maurice Jones Drew explained: “Calling those games against the 49es with my broadcast career with the Rams, it’s all short dink and dunks. Get the ball in their hands quickly and let those guys make plays. How many times have we seen Tyreek run [a short pattern and go the distance].
“They’re literally building this offense around Tua’s strengths. Those are [high] percentage throws - a quick slant, a quick hitch, a quick bubble screen to Waddle or Tyreek and they can do the distance. With Hill playing running back [earlier in his life], he’s a running back. Look at what they do; it’s yards after catch. It’s short dink and dunks.”
NFL Net’s Willie McGinest, the former Patriots defensive lineman, said with Hill: “You can do bubble screens, speed sweeps, put him in the backfield. He’ll find a way to get open. He’s elusive, has great vision and can break you down in the open field.”
All that being said, Hill has led the NFL with 28 deep receiving touchdowns since 2016.
The Dolphins were the only team to fail to throw multiple deep passing touchdowns last season.
On the point of Hill and Waddle doing a lot of damage on short throws, consider that Waddle had 370 yards after catch on passes of 10 yards or fewer last season, which was ninth in the league.
Hill had 347, which was 12th.
And Samuel had 442, which was sixth.
“While Tagovailoa may not connect with Hill and Waddle on a ton of deep balls, a play-action-based offense that resembles what McDaniel is familiar with from his time in San Francisco now has two players with Deebo Samuel-type abilities after the catch,” Pro Football Focus said.
▪ More reaction from around the league:
Former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III: “There’s only one Tyreek Hill and it’s Tyreek Hill! I know McDaniel will have this offense be the most explosive one yet with the Dolphins.
“Think the 49ers but more explosive and that’s a scary thought. Take Terron Armstead; he’s an athletic tackle. He’ll have Connor Williams and Armstead running sideline to sideline with that zone blocking scheme, which is a nightmare for defensive linemen. Speed kills; you can’t coach it. Hill will take the top off the defense.
“I respect McDaniel a lot for helping me when I was there. He is going to help Tua and create big [plays] down the field. Fans have something to be excited about in Miami. They should be throwing parties all night long.”
Former NFL safety and ESPN analyst Ryan Clark: “This team should be extremely explosive offensively. You have Hill and Waddle. If I was Kansas City, I would have been like, ‘you should have sent us Waddle.’ We saw him stretch the field as much as Hill.
“Huge move for the Dolphins. [New Dolphins receiver] Cedrick Wilson, very underrated. Terron Armstead was the best tackle available in free agency. Then going to get Edmonds and Mosert. This was about giving Mike McDaniel everything he needs to be successful.”
Former Dolphins executive Mike Tannenbaum, now an ESPN analyst: “How fast and explosive the Miami Dolphins are going to be. They franchise Mike Gesicki, a really productive tight end. They signed two really good backs in Edmonds and Mostert. The big question mark is Tua.”
NFL Net’s Brandt: “You’re looking at the Dolphins saying you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. This is one of the players of mass destruction. The Dolphins got their Deebo, and they got the guy who invented the Deebo experience.
“The Mike McDaniel thing is huge. He got his toy to play with. If you buy into this genius and how he’s going to change the game, and he made the Deebo Samuel experience happen.
“The creativity abounds. The Chiefs, they’re doing plays from the 1926 Rose Bowl. Now McDaniel can play, he can cook. They get their doors blown off by Buffalo every time they play them. Now they have the weapons to fight back.”
▪ Agent Drew Rosenhaus said the Dolphins were working on this deal for a week, once Kansas City granted him permission to seek a trade.
“I’ve been doing deals with the Dolphin for 34 years,” Rosenhaus told WQAM’s Joe Rose and Zach Krantz. “And of the dozens of contracts… this is the most momentous. This is a game-changer for this organization.
“Tyreek is one of the greatest players I’ve ever represented. He’s undoubtedly a future Hall of Famer. He’s one of the most explosive players, if not the most explosive player, in the history of the game. I was very surprised when I thought the Chiefs were open to trading him.
“He’s the most dangerous player with the football in his hands, but he’s dangerous without the ball in his hands.. You have to account for him every single play. It opens things underneath. Great for the running game. Makes life easier for Tua. He’s always open. An offensive guru like Mike McDaniel should be able to work wonders with Tyreek.”
He trains here in the offseason and has a home upstate.
Rosenhaus said after DeVante Adams got a record contract from Las Vegas, he told the Chiefs that “this should be the market for Tyreek” and if they don’t agree, “then to have an unprecedented trade and have Tyreek go to a team willing to make him the highest paid receiver.”
The Chiefs agreed to trade terms with the Dolphins and Jets and agreed to accept the offer with the team that gave Hill the contract he wanted.
“The bottom line is he was in the last year of his contract,” Rosenhaus said. “We had actually worked out a restructure that the Chiefs had wanted a week before, and it really looked like we were going to work toward a contract extension. There was even a report that we were close to a deal, that was inaccurate, but we were working on it. Then the [DeVante] Adams deal really flipped everything upside down.
“The Chiefs, I think they had the foresight to see that Tyreek was in the last year of his contract and we weren’t going to take a deal that wasn’t better than Adams, so they recognized this would probably be their last year with Tyreek, and this was their opportunity to potentially rebuild at that position.”
Of Dolphins executives Chris Grier and Brandon Shore, Rosenhaus said: “I can’t tell people how hard they worked on making this deal happen. It was a process we put in an unbelievable amount of time. People would be shocked the amount of effort put into this. They were relentless in their pursuit and commitment.”
Hill’s deal, which runs through 2026, has $72.2 million in guaranteed money.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 12:02 PM.
