Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle have been a wide-receiver tandem for the Miami Dolphins since 2022. But for the rest of the 2025 season, Waddle won’t have Hill on the field with him.
The former West Alabama standout sustained a season-ending knee injury in the Dolphins’ 27-21 victory over the New York Jets on Monday night.
“I don’t think you kind of replace it or anything like that,” Waddle said. “You can’t replace a personality and a player like that. You just kind of remember and know what you’re playing for, know how special a player and teammate he is and kind of just play through it or just play in remembrance of his energy.”
An eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time first-team All-Pro, Hill has 4,733 yards and 27 touchdowns on 340 receptions in 54 regular-season games with Miami. Since Hill joined the Dolphins, Waddle has had 3,299 yards and 16 touchdowns on 222 receptions in 50 regular-season games. In his first season with Hill as a teammate, Waddle led the NFL with an average of 18.1 yards per reception.
“We never look at it like Receiver 1 or 1A, 1B,” Waddle said. “I think it’s more like a media thing or something that gives something for the media to talk about. We all go out there, make plays and just try to help our team win. So it’s not a Receiver 1, Receiver 2 type of thing. It’s being able to go out there and contribute and help your team get a ‘W.’”
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In the season before the Dolphins acquired Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs, Waddle set an NFL rookie record with 104 receptions. He had 1,015 receiving yards and six touchdowns as a first-round rookie from Alabama in 2021.
“How he went about his business that year, just things that we asked of him and him knowing that as well,” Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said about his former Crimson Tide teammate, “he took it upon himself, too, that year that like, ‘I can’t be a rookie. This isn’t the year for me to be a rookie. I’ve got to come in and I’ve got to go and ball for this team.’
“I’ve got the utmost confidence in J-Dub.”
Miami coach Mike McDaniel called Waddle “an elite receiver.”
“I think we’ve looked at him as a Wide Receiver 1,” McDaniel said. “I think that it’s not necessarily a change from the way we approach it and the way we see it and I think he’s done a fantastic job being an elite receiver playing with another elite receiver. I don’t see as far as his game, he’s very, very much ready for this moment as he has seen himself as a one, and we’ve approached it the same way, so there shouldn’t be really an adjustment for Jaylen Waddle because he himself stands alone.”
While Waddle becomes the clear top target for Tagovailoa now, the Dolphins will turn to Malik Washington, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Dee Eskridge as the replacements for Hill. None has more than eight receptions this season.
“Just go out there and play, bro,” Waddle said of his advice to his position group. “That’s our whole thing. They’re going to get much more opportunity. Go out there, play free, play fast. Be you, bro. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Just play your game and you’ll be all right.”
Coming off their first victory of the season, the Dolphins take on the Carolina Panthers at noon CDT Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Panthers also have a 1-3 record.
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