Report: Dolphins coaching staff liked what Tua recently did to Tyreek Hill

The Miami Dolphins’ coaching staff liked that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa spoke out about wide receiver Tyreek Hill needing to repair relationships, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano.

After Week 18 of the 2024 season, Hill implied that he was done with the Dolphins, saying, “I’m out,” in reference to his Dolphins tenure.

Tagovailoa said that he wanted to hold Hill “accountable” for what he said, and apparently it was received well by Miami’s coaches.

“Inside the building, though, what the front office and coaching staff took notice of was the fact they won six of their next eight games,” Graziano wrote. “That the leaders on the team stepped up and made sure things didn’t fall completely apart. The coaching staff believes it found out a lot about what certain players did and didn’t have inside of them that could help the team recover from a down year and make sure the culture was strong going forward. The front office and coaching staff got together in the offseason and decided that maybe the down year was in some ways just what they needed, because maybe winning had been masking some issues that needed to be — and now could be — addressed head-on.

“You want an example? People I spoke to when I was there cited the news conference comments Tagovailoa made a couple of weeks ago about star wide receiver Tyreek Hill and the need for Hill to repair relationships in the building as a result of things that were said or tweeted early in the offseason. The coaching staff liked that Tagovailoa did that. They saw it as a sign that the two were working to address the real underlying issues of the situation, rather than gloss over it with platitudes or social media sniping. In Hill’s news conference on Thursday, in which he not only said he agreed with Tua’s comments but also offered the shockingly honest opinion that De’Von Achane isn’t big enough to be the team’s goal-line back, seemed to support the idea there are real and honest conversations happening in the building.”

If the Dolphins want to be successful in the 2025 season, they’ll need to be on the same page and willing to improve on last season’s pedestrian 8-9 record. Miami missed the playoffs in the 2024 season – the first time it failed to make the postseason under head coach Mike McDaniel.

Tagovailoa was injured for a good chunk of the 2024 season, appearing in just 11 games, and that certainly limited Miami’s ceiling. The Dolphins were just 2-4 in the six games that Tagovailoa missed, as they used several other quarterbacks in an attempt to replace him.

Tyler Huntley, Tim Boyle and Skylar Thompson all saw time at quarterback for Miami in 2024.

When Tagovailoa has been healthy, he and Hill have formed one of the more lethal duos in the NFL.

In his first two seasons with the Dolphins, Hill tallied over 1,700 receiving yards. In the 2022 season, his first with the Dolphins, Hill immediately transformed the team’s offense, finishing with 119 catches for 1,710 yards and seven touchdowns.

As a result, the star wideout earned an All-Pro selection and one of his eight Pro-Bowl selections of his career.

Then, in the 2023 season, Hill built on his strong first season in Miami with Tagovailoa throwing him the ball. Once again, he caught 119 passes, and he led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns.

There’s no doubt that the Dolphins are a better team when Hill and Tagovailoa are both clicking, and it appears that Miami’s coaching staff likes that the star quarterback is keeping his No. 1 receiving option accountable for his actions.

Hopefully, this will lead to a big season for Miami as it aims to get back into the playoff mix in the AFC.