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FRANKFURT, Germany — Mike McDaniel laughed it off at first, convinced that what his new boss was proposing was pure fantasy. No need to give it much thought. No point in getting his hopes up. No way it would ever happen.
It was March 2022. McDaniel was six weeks on the job as the Dolphins’ coach, and his general manager, Chris Grier, had come to him with this faint possibility, an outside chance at an outside chance. He’d heard the Kansas City Chiefs’ All-Pro receiver, Tyreek Hill, might be available via trade. What did the coach think?
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McDaniel brushed it off.
“Untouchable,” was the first word that came to mind. Players as good as Tyreek Hill don’t get traded, he thought.
Logic was on his side: Hill was 27, in his prime, a Pro Bowler every year he’d been in the league. He was undeniably one of the scariest weapons in football, capable of flipping any game every time he touched the field. Teams don’t let guys like that leave their building.
But Hill also had been brazenly honest that offseason — the same offseason wide receiver contracts started to really balloon — about what he wanted. He believed he was the best wideout in football. He wanted to be paid accordingly.
Grier was starting to believe that wasn’t going to happen in Kansas City. Which meant Hill would get his payday elsewhere.
The GM asked his coach to give it some thought. Could he fit in Miami?
McDaniel promptly lost himself in five hours’ worth of film, he later recounted on “The Dan Le Batard Show,” starting with the 2021 season, then 2020, then 2019, missing dozens of calls and texts from his wife throughout the binge. It was the offseason, remember — McDaniel was supposed to be home at a reasonable hour. But that never happened. “I couldn’t stop,” the coach remembered. “I was in too deep.” When Grier asked for the coach’s verdict, wanting to know how much he was willing to part with to bring Hill to Miami, McDaniel blurted out three words.
“Give them everything!”
It took five draft picks, including a first- and second-rounder that spring, a trade that shook the league and reshaped two contenders. When McDaniel finally connected with the wideout on the phone, before the deal was official, he figured he’d have to recruit him a little, sell him on South Beach.
He was wrong. Hill cut right to it.
“Coach, I’m coming,” he told him.
The four-year, $120 million contract made it official.
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Twenty months later, the Dolphins don’t hold an ounce of regret. Hill’s been worth every pick and every dollar. He’s altered what’s possible in Miami, and along with McDaniel, has helped revive Tua Tagovailoa’s career. Already an elite weapon in Kansas City, he’s become something more in Miami: arguably the most important non-quarterback in the league.
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That’s what McDaniel told Grier early on: “Chris, he’s one of the only non-quarterbacks where you do whatever it takes.”
So Grier made the move. His franchise hasn’t been the same since.
On Sunday, in the NFL’s first-ever game in Frankfurt, Germany, Hill will square off against his old team for the first time. The clash between a pair of 6-2 division leaders and Super Bowl contenders arrives with Hill playing the best football of his career: on Thursday he was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Month, and last week, he became the first player in the Super Bowl era to climb past the 1,000-yard receiving mark eight games into the season.
His ambitious goal, from way back in the preseason, remains within reach.
“Two thousand yards,” Hill boasted in August.
It’s never been done. Calvin Johnson’s 1,964-yard outburst in 2012 remains the league record. If Hill crests the 2,000-yard plateau, he’d garner serious consideration for the league’s MVP award — an accolade a non-quarterback hasn’t won since Adrian Peterson in 2012.
Does he feel like he deserves it?
“No,” Hill said Thursday. “Because we have a player on our team who’s better than me and means more to this team, you feel me?”
He jokingly mentioned Dolphins fullback Alex Ingold, who was watching his news conference from a few feet away. But truth told, Hill was referring to Tagovailoa, the quarterback whose career hadn’t gone anywhere until McDaniel and Hill arrived in 2022. He’s now among the most prolific passers in the league.
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The quarterback knows how central a role Hill has played in jump-starting his play and the Dolphins’ offense.
“The fastest man alive as far as stepping foot on a football field and playing in pads,” he calls his top target.
TUA DIME TO TYREEK. 42-YARD TOUCHDOWN.
📺: #NEvsMIA on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/VI65QA6lZ0— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
But beyond the speed and the stats, teammates speak of Hill differently this year, tossing around words like “leadership” and “ownership.” He’s shown a deeper commitment to both himself and the team, living up to the “C” on his uniform. The Dolphins are better for it.
“There’s a trickle-down effect for a lot of guys in the locker room,” Tagovailoa said. “They follow his lead.”
And to hear Hill tell it, he’s even playing faster — and smarter — than he did a year ago, his first in Miami. Back then, he was merely running routes, using his speed to get open. Now he knows the entire scheme, not simply his role in it, which allows him to use space and leverage more to his advantage.
“Everything has slowed down, man,” he says.
That’s a scary reality for the rest of the league because Hill already was one of the toughest covers in football. The Dolphins lead the league in both passing and rushing and when it comes to explosive plays, they’re running away from the rest of the NFL.
Still, Hill acknowledged Thursday, his divorce with the Chiefs was never his aim. Even with his sparkling new contract in Miami, it wasn’t easy to walk away from the only NFL franchise he’d ever known, the one he helped lift a Lombardi Trophy with after the 2019 season. He can remember when the trade became official — March 23, 2022 — and the reality hit him like a ton of bricks.
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He admitted Thursday he was hoping for a phone call that day from two people, either Chiefs coach Andy Reid or quarterback Patrick Mahomes, telling him the Chiefs were going to meet his contract requests. In his gut, he wanted to stay in Kansas City.
The call never came.
And that’s when he knew it was over.
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“It took some time,” Hill said. “It definitely took some time.”
He’s professed the all-business approach this week, vowing that it’s just another game, that seeing his old teammates — Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, so many others — won’t rev him any more than any other Sunday. He’s been coaching up the Dolphins’ defensive backs, reminding them that when Mahomes leaves the pocket, the goal is simple.
“Just find Kelce, just find Kelce,” Hill’s told them.
Easier said than done.
But this is an undeniably unique game, not solely because of the matchup but the venue. Frankfurt is buzzing in anticipation, hoping the Chiefs and Dolphins light up the scoreboard and put on a show. Hill gets it — “two MVP quarterbacks,” he said of Tagovailoa and Mahomes. He, too, is a big part of the allure.
“It would’ve been great to play in Kansas City, but it really doesn’t matter where we play at. They gonna get this work wherever,” Hill said, taunting his former team, allowing a smile to creep on his face.
He knew that comment would find its way to social media.
“Bulletin board material,” he called it.
He said he’s excited to see Mahomes and Kelce, who led the Chiefs to another Super Bowl last season without him.
The trash-talking is coming.
So is the show.
“It’s gonna be like, ‘I wanna see you do good, but I’m gonna bust your ass at the same time,'” Hill said. “It’s gonna be like backyard football with your brothers.”
Just on different sides this time.
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(Top photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
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