Tyreek Hill was quick to react to the Miami Dolphins’ recent announcement of a quarterback change in Week 16 of the 2025 NFL season. They are officially benching Tua Tagovailoa and turning the job over to rookie Quinn Ewers. The superstar wide receiver had a cryptic response shortly after the news broke.
Tyreek Hill’s Cryptic Response to Tua Tagovailoa’s Benching
The Dolphins were officially eliminated from playoff contention following their loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 15 on Monday Night Football. This apparently sparked a major change, as just two days later, they announced that they would bench Tagovailoa and start Ewers instead.
Hill wasted no time reacting to the news, doing so with a cryptic message on his X account. He posted it just minutes after the announcement became official that Miami is making a quarterback change.
His post was simple, featuring both an emoji and a GIF, with the thumbs-up gesture providing no additional context, along with the response. This creates plenty of speculation about what exactly he means by it, but two possibilities seem to be the most prominent.
— Ty Hill (@cheetah) December 17, 2025
The first is that he could be signaling a farewell to Tagovailoa as their starter, or perhaps that he believes the Dolphins will move on from him completely during the offseason. He currently ranks just 25th among all quarterbacks in PFSN’s Impact Rankings, so his struggles have been glaring. Hill may be acknowledging his benching, while potentially implying that the franchise will soon get him off its roster.
The other main possibility that Hill could be cryptically announcing is that his own time in Miami is also coming to an end. He may be insinuating that he will no longer be playing for the Dolphins, especially with many rumors circulating that he would be a trade candidate during the offseason anyway.
The superstar wide receiver has just one year remaining on his contract, which is often an indicator that a player could be on the trade market. This is especially true for a veteran in his situation on a team that appears to be heading for a rebuild.
The quarterback change, as well as missing the playoffs again, suggests that Miami is well aware it needs to make changes if it wants to return to being a contender. Hill is currently on the injured reserve list, but at just 31 years old, several teams would likely be interested in acquiring him if he’s made available during the offseason.
