Tua-Tyreek Relationship a 'Work in Progress'

Tyreek Hill has been trying to do and say all the right things to get back into the good graces of his Miami Dolphins teammates this year, but he’s still got some work to do as far as Tua Tagovailoa is concerned.

The quarterback spoke to the media after the first practice of training camp and the topic of Hill’s “I’m out” rant after the 2024 season finale against the New York Jets came up, specifically whether the two need to rebuild their relationship.

“Sure, I would say we're still continuing to do that,” Tua 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.

“So when you say something like that, you don't just come back from that with, hey, my bad. You gotta work that relationship up, you gotta build everything up again. And, yeah, it's still a work in progress. Not just for me, but for everybody. But like I said, he's working on himself. He's working on the things that he says he wants to get better with and do better on. So that's the first step to me. And so I commend him for doing that.”

Hill was among the players who spoke to the media Tuesday when veterans reported for training camp and he was asked to reflect on those comments from January.

“I told my dad, I said, ‘I want to see what it looks like whenever I focus just on football and I just focus on myself and family,’ ”  Hill said. “Because I feel like I really haven’t been giving the best version of me, of Tyreek, my whole entire career. I’ve always been trying to be here, be there. But me being able to slow down a little bit, train and bust my tail for myself and then also for this community and this team, I feel like it’ll be worth it. So I just want to see what that version of myself looks like, so I’m looking forward to it.

“Just being present every day on time. Doing things extra. Catching footballs after practice, conditioning whenever I’m tired. Being that vocal leader in the locker room for guys. Just being the dude Miami paid me to be and what I know I can be and my family knows what I can be. So that’s me in a nutshell. I got here through hard work and sometimes when you get to a certain spot in your life where you want to be, you’re like, okay, it’s cool, but now like I said, me being able to slow down my life a lot, enjoy my kids a little bit this offseason; I realized that I’ve got to continue to grind.”

Tua did say Wednesday that he has noticed some changes with Hill.

“I think there's a lot more vulnerability with Tyreek,” Tua said. “He's conversating a lot more with the guys, not just about football, but about things off the field. Being vulnerable with some of the things that, people know about his personal life and things of that nature. And I think that's the first step to him building true relationships and a real connection with a lot of the guys in there. Everyone knows what he can do on the field. Everyone respects what he can do on the field. But I think he's still trying to figure things out for himself as well, kind of the man he wants to be. And he's not too young like everybody makes mistakes. It's just some people you know they they're in the spotlight you know and their deals get pushed out more than than some others. So just got to cut him some grace. I mean, that's our teammate. You know, we love him. But as a person, if you get to know him, I think you'd love him too.”

A FRUSTRATING SEASON FOR ALL

So essentially Tagovailoa took advantage of his media session to make clear he didn’t appreciate Hill’s post-Jets comments, regardless of whether those were made strictly out of frustration.

And it obviously was a very frustrating season for Tagovailoa, Hill and the Dolphins.

Not only did Hill fail to reach 1,000 yards after being back-to-back 1,700-yard seasons, he missed the playoffs for the first time in his NFL career.

Hill talked Tuesday about going for a 2,000-yard season, and achieving that likely would get the Dolphins back into the playoffs, but even coming up short of that it’s clear the Dolphins need to get more out of not only Hill but also Jaylen Waddle in 2025 after a down season for both.

Tagovailoa was asked how those two connections can go back to previous levels.

“I think you continue to work with those guys, right?” he said. “Tyreek wasn't here as much practicing during OTAs because he had his surgery, he had to do things to make sure that he was ready for training camp. And with Jadav, we had those reps in OTAs, we had some reps during the off season when we were gone. So to me, that's all it takes. It's continued reps, continuing to communicate through what you see, what I see, and we kind of maneuver it through there and we adjust.”

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