Mike McDaniel ignores ‘soft’ critique from former player (0:50)
Mike McDaniel disregards former Dolphin DeShon Elliott calling last year’s Miami team “soft.” (0:50)
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Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPNNov 14, 2024, 05:50 PM ET
- Marcel Louis-Jacques joined ESPN in 2019 as a beat reporter covering the Buffalo Bills, before switching to the Miami Dolphins in 2021. The former Carolina Panthers beat writer for the Charlotte Observer won the APSE award for breaking news and the South Carolina Press Association award for enterprise writing in 2018.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill said Thursday he may undergo surgery on a wrist injury that limited him at practice last week, but any procedure wouldn’t be until after the 2024 season ends.
Hill said he first injured his wrist in August, during a joint practice with the Washington Commanders. The injury worsened over the first nine weeks of the season, to a point where Hill was held out of the Dolphins’ final two practices of Week 10 and carried a questionable tag into Miami’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.
The league’s leading receiver from a season ago said he declined surgery and will play through the pain.
“At the end of the day, I just got to suck it up and just deal with the pain,” Hill said. “It’s going to get worse the more I play, but I got to [gut] it out for my team. I’m here, I’m locked in no matter what, no matter how I feel. So even if I’ve got to cut my wrist off, I’m still out there because I love the game of football.
“Surgery was brought up and it was talked about whenever I talked to a few of the doctors, but it’s my call at the end of the day, and my call is to stay out on the field.”
Hill didn’t commit to surgery after the season but said he’d be “in a good space to make that decision” when the time comes. He did not practice Wednesday but was upgraded to a limited participant Thursday and expects to play Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.
ESPN’s Lisa Salters reported Monday night that Hill told her that he aggravated his wrist injury during his detainment by police before the Dolphins’ Week 1 game when he was taken to the ground, however, when asked to confirm that Thursday, he said the injury happened in the joint practice with the Commanders on a red zone play.
No player has more receiving yards since 2022 than Hill’s 3,971, but he is off to one of the worst starts of his career this season. He leads the Dolphins with 462 receiving yards through nine games but ranks just 37th in the league in that category. He’s on pace for 872 receiving yards, which would mark his lowest total since recording 860 yards in 12 games in 2019.
“It’s going to get worse the more I play, but I got to [gut] it out for my team. I’m here, I’m locked in no matter what, no matter how I feel. So even if I’ve got to cut my wrist off, I’m still out there because I love the game of football.”
Tyreek Hill
Hill’s 51.3 yards per game average is less than half of the 106.3 yards per game he averaged during his first two seasons with the Dolphins.
But he says he has become a more complete receiver this year, in ways that don’t show up on the individual stat sheet.
“I feel like for me, I feel like I took a step forward in my game,” Hill said. “Our position coach [Wes Welker] has helped me develop, becoming a full receiver which is blocking, being stronger at the catch point, running precise routes and stuff like that. A lot of people look at the numbers and say, ‘Oh, he was this and that,’ but I feel like as a player, I’ve gotten better. As a leader, I’ve gotten better, and I just feel like I’ve gotten better in that sense.”
