Report: Tyler Boyd linked to Miami Dolphins and other contenders

An article from Mark Kaboly of The Athletic published on Tuesday has connected the Miami Dolphins to free agent wide receiver Tyler Boyd.

“I would say that it would be a long shot, at best, that the two sides come together,” Kaboly wrote when asked if Boyd and the Pittsburgh Steelers will find common ground. “From what I have been told, Boyd was extremely interested in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the free-agency process, but the offer wasn’t something he was comfortable with. Boyd has at least had preliminary interest from the [Kansas City] Chiefs, [Los Angeles] Chargers, Dolphins, [Detroit] Lions and [San Francisco] 49ers. I am pretty sure the ship with the Steelers has sailed.”

Boyd spent the first eight seasons of his NFL career playing for the Cincinnati Bengals, who selected him with the No. 55 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Across 17 games played with the Bengals in the 2023 regular season, the 29-year-old totaled 667 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns and 28 first downs receiving. He also boasted averages of 3.9 receptions per game and 39.2 receiving yards per contest.

While Boyd put up respectable numbers in his eighth season in the pros, his 667 receiving yards marked the fewest he’s accumulated in a single season since the 2017 campaign, when he appeared in just 10 regular-season games and totaled 225 receiving yards.

The most receiving yards that Boyd has accumulated in a single season came in the 2019 season, when he totaled 1,046 to go along with five receiving touchdowns and 51 first downs receiving while averaging 11.6 yards per reception.

According to Kaboly, the Dolphins are far from the only team that has expressed interest in Boyd. The Chiefs — who are fresh off a Super Bowl title – along with the Lions and 49ers are among the handful of squads reportedly interested in acquiring the wide receiver.

But arguably none of those teams have a better receiving corps than the Dolphins do at the moment. Miami already has two of the NFL’s best wide receivers in Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, both of whom finished with over 1,000 receiving yards in the 2023 regular season.

In fact, Hill led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,799 in his second season with the Dolphins organization.

If the Dolphins manage to convince Boyd to forgo his other options and ink a deal with them, the team would — at least on paper — strengthen a receiver core that is already among the league’s finest. Plus, his presence would seemingly give quarterback Tua Tagovailoa another dynamic player to throw to.