Compared to his opening two seasons playing for the Miami Dolphins organization, wide receiver Tyreek Hill had quite the down year in the 2024 campaign.
After he finished with 1,700-plus receiving yards in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he totaled just 959 receiving yards a season ago, his fewest in a single campaign in the 2020s.
However, one anonymous NFC executive claimed that Hill’s underwhelming campaign was not an indictment of him losing any of his speed. The person said that Hill’s speed “hasn’t fallen off” even though he looked like a shell of his former self in his third season as a Dolphin.
“He still impacts how you prepare for them so much due to his speed,” an NFC executive said. “He dictates so much. His speed hasn’t fallen off, despite the down year.”
There were factors outside of Hill’s control that seemingly played a part in him not living up to expectations a season ago. For one, the ball simply wasn’t thrown his way enough for him to have another monster season statistically.
He ended up with just 123 targets on the season, and he at least 170 targets in each of his opening two seasons with the Dolphins. The last time he had less than 123 targets in a single season came when he played for the Kansas City Chiefs back in 2019.
That season, Hill was limited to just 12 games and was targeted 89 times.
Not only that, but quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was limited to just 11 games played last season, and Hill’s quality of play suffered majorly when Tagovailoa wasn’t leading the offensive attack. In the six contests Tagovailoa didn’t play in last season, Hill averaged a mere 44.2 receiving yards per game.
Hill had maybe his worst performance of the season in one of the games Tagovailoa missed as well. Against the Indianapolis Colts in October of last year, he accumulated just eight receiving yards on one reception.
Hopefully, Hill will be able to carve out a bounce-back campaign with the Dolphins in the 2025 season and re-solidify himself as being in the conversation for the best wide receiver in the league. Perhaps he will prove to folks that he is still quite the speedster as well.
If Hill has another underwhelming season, though, his future with the Dolphins could be in jeopardy.
