Tyreek Explains Smile After Gruesome Injury

Tyreek Hill is a few weeks removed from the surgery he needed after his gruesome knee injury in the Miami Dolphins' Week 4 Monday night game against the New York Jets, and his football future very much remains in doubt.

In an interview on former Dolphins teammate Terron Armstead's podcast (The Set) that was posted Thursday night, Hill said he was too involved in the present to think about making future decisions such as to shoot for a comeback or retire after 10 seasons in the NFL with a legitimate chance to make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame already.

But Hill said he was at peace with what happened on the night of September 29 because the being sidelined has allowed him to spend time with his children and not be all about football all the time.

HILL EXPLAINS IMMEDIATE REACTION

Hill's grateful attitude goes back to the immediate aftermath of the injury when he drew a lot of attention for the smile on his face as he was being carted off the field at Hard Rock Stadium with an injury where the best-case scenario was season-ending and the worst was career-ending.

"The crazy part about it, when I got tackled, I immediately tried to get up and, like, I couldn't use my left leg to get up because I'm left-hand dominant," Hill explained. "So I tried to get up, and I saw that my leg was crooked, and I was like, oh (darn), I got a (darn) party score, baby. So I immediately started laughing because I feel like, man, I've been able to play this game for 10 years, really, my whole entire life, I've been blessed with great talents and great gifts and just the amount of support that I get. I'm saying for my family, it's like, amazing, man.

"So I really wasn't even thinking about the injury. I was just thinking about the great times, I've had playing this game and and just me being in Miami, like it all came full circle. I was just happy. I was just happy because I'm always trying to find the good in everything. I get time to spend with my kids. I get time to travel. I get time to like, really sit down and just enjoy my life and not always train, because I feel like all of my life, that's all I do. I'm nonstop. You can ask anybody. All I want to do is train. I want to live in a gym. I want to live on a track, I want to live on a Jugs machine. That's always been me, and it's never been like me, like sacrificing my time for my family, or sacrificing my time to do some of the things that I want to do."

Not to put words in Hill's mouth, but that certainly sounds like somebody who's ready to retire.

But Hill said there's no reason to rush a decision.

For Hill to be able to come back, he'd had to get through what is sure to be a very long recovery process if the goal is to be ready for the start of the 2026 season, as his agent Drew Rosenhaus said after Hill had his surgery.

Rosenhaus said at the time that Hill still wanted to play for the Dolphins, though that would have to come under a new contract because there appears no conceivable way that Miami would pick up the options in Hill's contract that are due in March. Hill currently has a cap number for 2026 of over $51 million, per OverTheCap, but no remaining guarantees.

That's five months down the road.

And maybe by that time Hill already will have decided he's good with calling it a career, even if he's not there yet.

"At the end of the day, I feel like that decision is all based upon how I feel and where my mindset is at the moment," Hill told Armstead. "Right now, I'm happy, I'm happy with being with my kids. I'm happy with the career that I've had. I love playing football. I love it, but it takes a lot. It takes a lot to be the best and to stay at the top and make a lot of money and help your team win games and stuff like that. It takes a lot. It takes a lot on you mentally. Takes a lot on you physically. And I'm at the point now where I'm just like, I need to have a conversation with mom, family, everybody. Like, I said, wherever my mind is at the time, the decision to be made, but I just know right now I feel like I haven't had time to just live in the moment and just be in the moment with my family. So I just want to be in this moment with my family."

HILL'S DOLPHINS LEGACY

If indeed this is it for Hill, his Dolphins career will be one that can be viewed in a lot of different ways.

On the one hand, the Dolphins got the dynamic playmaker they were hoping they'd get when they traded five draft picks, including a first and a second, to get Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs in March of 2022.

Hill was team MVP his first two seasons with the Dolphins and was on track to become the first NFL wide receiver to reach 2,000 receiving yards in a season in 2023 before the high ankle sprain he sustained in that forgettable December Monday night loss against the Tennessee Titans.

So from a production standpoint, it's impossible to ignore just how good Hill was before his production dipped in 2024 in large part because of injuries to himself and to starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

But Hill also made news for the wrong reasons way too often during his time in Miami, from the off-the-field incidents that included being detained by police before the 2024 season opener to the suggestions he often was late to meetings to pulling himself out of the 2024 finale against the New York Jets and then saying, "I'm out, bro."

So, truly it's complicated.

Would the Dolphins, in retrospect, have been better off not trading for Hill?

Well, his presence in the lineup hasn't changed the fact the Dolphins still haven't won a playoff game since December 30, 2000. But would the Dolphins even have made the playoffs in 2022 and 2023 if they just kept the draft picks they sent to Kansas City and not had Hill in their offense?

It's a tough call either way.

The bottom line is unless Hill decided to go through the long comeback journey, the Dolphins decided to bring him back with a different contract that they and Rosenhaus can agree on, his time in Miami will have come to a really sudden and brutal end.

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