Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel needs to fix Tua/Tyreek relationship.
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Miami Dolphins head coach needs to repair relationship between Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill.
Remember when Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill said he wanted out of town? As it turns out, he said it out loud, people heard him and there were repercussions.
Specifically, it put a strain on his relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tua surely wasn’t thrilled that his biggest weapon and veteran leader didn’t want to be there. Following Hill’s comments, Taigovailoa addressed his need to rebuild his relationship with the mercurial wideout back in July.
“Sure, I would say we’re still continuing to do that,” Tagovailoa said. “But it’s not just with me. It’s with a lot of the guys. I’m not the only one that heard that. You guys aren’t the only people that heard that. A lot of people that follow football, that follow the Miami Dolphins, that follow Tyreek, that are fans of his, everyone has seen that.”
This week on the Rich Eisen Show, Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel said that Tua and Tyreek are continuing to reestablish that connection.
“These are people that are working on the relationship,” McDaniel said. “I think the power in that is both of the players, like most relationships, you learn and you grow and when you invest you go through whatever, but the relationship becomes more real.”
Mike McDaniel says Tua has matured
Following the 2024 season, Hill made it clear that he wasn’t happy being a Miami Dolphin.
“This is my first time I haven’t been in the playoffs, man,” Hill said in January following a season-ending loss to the New York Jets. So I just got to do what’s best for me and my family. If that’s here or wherever the case may be, I’m finna open that door for myself. I’m opening the door. I’m out, bro. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day I gotta do what’s best for my career because I’m too much of a competitor to be just out there.”
At that point, it wasn’t just about Hill wanting to recommit himself to stay in Miami and all of a sudden becoming a great teammate, he had to be accepted back into the locker room. And first and foremost it starts with the quarterback, because if the team leader say it’s okay, then it’s okay (see: Michael Vick having to act like he was cool with Riley Cooper not being cut for being an out-loud racist on camera).
“I thought it was a maturation or a graduation of Tua as the leader of the team,” McDaniel added. “And also I think it speaks to how healthy they are because there haven’t been that many opportunities for the public to see them interact. But as time passes you’ll see a more connected relationship and really not hiding anything.”
Some thought the Dolphins should wash their hands of Hill
After Hill made his semi-infamous “I’m out, bro” comments, there were some in the Miami media that thought it was so bad that it was time to pull the plug. Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post wrote at the time that the “experiment” was over.
“The great Tyreek Hill experiment came to a conclusion Sunday night,” Habib wrote. “Or was it Sunday afternoon? With Tyreek, clearcut answers never come easily, so we may never know exactly when his time with the Miami Dolphins reached the point of no return.”
Notice that McDaniel talked about Tua’s maturation as a team leader, but you don’t really hear him talk about Hill like that. And, for good reason.
“Question: If your team leader is a guy who looks for the door at a time like this, what’s it say about him? And about your team?,” Habib continued. “You could also conclude it doesn’t say much about those who voted him a team captain, but keep in mind that ever since he arrived, Hill was the one everybody knew would always go 100 miles an hour on every rep in every practice.
“Sunday, he tossed every bit of that goodwill in the dumpster.”
So, this is probably the sentiment held by many inside the organization as well. This is what McDaniel is dealing with and if this whole Tua/Tyreek thing goes south for any reason, it’s safe to say McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier could soon be spending more time on LinkedIn convincing entrepreneurs that they can streamline their IT solutions or boost their sales funnels.