MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — As surprising as the Miami Dolphins‘ struggles on offense have been for those of us on the outside, they have to be doubly shocking for the team itself.
No one envisioned a team that scored the second-most points in football in 2023 having scored the fewest in the league through three weeks.
Tyreek Hill on Miami Dolphins’ Sputtering Offense
“Thirty-three points [on the season],” Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill said. “That sucks, right? Yeah, man. It’s not fun, you know, being on the short stick of a bad offense.
“But I look at it like this: I’d rather us go through this adversity early, figure it out, and then begin to gain momentum toward the end. … But now we have a chance to like, you know, start slow, and then now build up momentum up towards the end. We got a beautiful thing going right here, man.”
Credit Hill for his optimism. But the reality is a bit less sunny. The Dolphins on Monday night will almost certainly start their third different quarterback in as many weeks. McDaniel seems poised to go with Snoop Huntley over Tim Boyle against the Tennessee Titans.
And he seems to understand that he can’t call the same game for Huntley as he would have for Tua Tagovailoa.
“We got a heck of a coaching staff who’s able to put together a crazy game plan,” Hill said. “It’s gonna be a crazy game, man. Monday night. Looking forward to it.
“Today [in practice], I feel pretty strong [about] what we did as an offense and, you know, everything looked the way it normally looked and it normally felt. So it was fun today.”
Getting back to normal for Hill means getting him the ball. Hill has just 64 yards the last two games, his lowest two-game total since joining the Dolphins in 2022. He has six catches on 11 targets since Week 2, which is again far short of his standard.
“Our job is to be a good teammate,” Hill said when asked if he and Jaylen Waddle have had a talk to McDaniel about getting more involved. “As frustrating as it is as a player — because it can get tough for both of us because we’re so used to being such big game-changers and stuff like that; it’s tough.”
“But at the end of the day, we got to understand that we have great players on this team who can make plays, and whenever our plays is called, you know, we got to make our plays. We just can’t be the guy that always wants the ball and then when the ball comes, we don’t make the play. We gotta be able to rely on our team.”
Asked if there might come a time where he needs to demand the ball, Hill replied:
“I’ve got out of that. I’ve grown through that stage of my life. I’ve been talking to my therapist and she said, ‘Don’t get into arguments on the sideline.’ So I’ve let it go. I’ve let that side of me go, like demanding the ball.”