Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill showed up with little fanfare at a track meet in California on Friday and won the 100-meter dash with an impressive time of 10.15 seconds.
That’s an incredibly fast race considering that Hill is 31 years old and hadn’t run track competitively since college, and shows that if Hill had wanted to focus on track instead of football, he has the talent to be an elite sprinter. DK Metcalf, who competed in a 100-meter race in 2021, was widely praised for his time of 10.37 seconds. Hill bested Metcalf’s time easily.
Hill’s race was part of the Last Chance Sprint Series, and the competition Hill beat was solid: Isaac Bostio, who was last year’s NCAA Division II national champion in the 100 meters, finished second among all the 100-meter runners at the meet, behind Hill at 10.18 seconds. In Hill’s own heat, the second-place finisher was former Michigan sprinter Asani Hampton in 10.26 seconds.
Hill has been talking up a race with Noah Lyles, and after winning the race on Friday, Hill held up a sign saying, “Noah could never.” The reality is Lyles could beat Hill easily in a 100-meter sprint, but Hill still did something incredibly impressive on the track on Friday.
Dolphins guard James Daniels is recuperating from an Achilles tendon tear that ended his 2024 season, but he says no one should feel sorry for him.
Daniels said he keeps his injury in perspective by giving thought to the many people in the world who are less fortunate than he is.
“The Achilles, yes it’s unfortunate, but there’s people in way worse positions,” Daniels said. “Especially what’s happening in L.A. People’s parents, people’s grandparents are being deported illegally. I don’t have to worry about my mom getting deported, my dad getting deported or my wife getting deported. I’ve played a long time. I’ve made decent money. So there’s a lot bigger issues people have on their plate. So for me, going through an Achilles injury is pretty easy.”
Daniels is heading into his first season with the Dolphins after playing four years with the Bears and three with the Steelers. And he has learned that, as tough as injuries can make life in the NFL, it’s a life he’s fortunate to have.
Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill has been making steady progress in his recovery from wrist surgery, according to head coach Mike McDaniel.
Reporters at Tuesday’s minicamp practice noticed Hill catching passes for what was believed to be the first time during the offseason program.
“He’s trying to get me to go against the process and shortchange when he’s supposed to catch footballs, but we’re being very diligent,” McDaniel said in his Wednesday press conference, via transcript from the team. “He’s pitching to do more and more, which is good. He’s been active in the offseason program, all while not catching footballs.
“So yes, it was early in the process and he’s toeing the line in a healthy, good way of pushing that timetable of return sooner and sooner.”
Though Hill was dealing with the injury for much of last season, he still started all 17 games for Miami. He finished with 81 catches for 959 yards with six touchdowns. His yards per game was just 56.4, down from a career-high 112.4 in 2023.
Quarterback Zach Wilson spent three tumultuous years with the Jets before he was traded to the Broncos last offseason.
Now he’s back in the AFC East on a one-year deal with the Dolphins, as head coach Mike McDaniel said Wilson was “a direct, calculated target” to be Tua Tagovailoa’s backup in 2025.
In his Tuesday press conference, McDaniel complimented Wilson for the way he’s made some adjustments when it comes to the timing of his throws.
“There’s residuals to people, just in general, that have gone through things that are very beneficial at the quarterback position or just on a football team,” McDaniel said, via transcript from the team. “But as a football player, I think he’s come close to about as much scrutiny as one could have. Your top three draft pick — he was [No.] 2 — in New York City. Well, I mean, I think Joe Namath figured that out, and everybody else is like, ‘Woah, this is a lot.’ But that’s what I see, is a guy that is playing football with the empowerment of, ‘You know what? I’m strong enough to handle anything.’
“And a guy like that — that’s continually working at his craft, who has supreme arm talent — it’s cool to watch him grow, particularly in our offense, because guys with arm talent always throw it late. You have a stronger arm, [you might say], ‘I’ll just wait and see it.’ Go back to like John Elway and dudes with cannons. A guy with arm talent like that to challenge the play, the game of football, the quarterback position, the only reason I would even challenge him in that regard is because he has the power of, ‘Yeah, this game adjustment, or what coach is asking of me is minuscule, rabbit pellets, relative.’ So he’s exhibited that.”
But moreover, McDaniel sees the experiences Wilson has had in the league as a benefit for him moving forward.
“Coming in, I’m going to challenge the guy because at the quarterback position, you are supremely challenged every drive, every quarter,” McDaniel said. “He looks like a guy that has been through some shit and found his way through it, because it does not make him worse. He learns from it.
“And that’s realistically the best thing that’s gone on this offseason is I’ve seen a lot of people match those types of energies of supreme conviction in trying to be their very best, and you do that by boldly attacking stuff a lot of times that are uncomfortable.”
Wilson did not appear in a game for the Broncos last year. In 34 career appearances with 33 starts, he’s completed 57 percent of his passes for 6,293 yards with 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed the last two games of the 2024 season with a hip injury that was said to be unrelated to the serious hip injury he suffered while in college at Alabama.
Tagovailoa said back in January that if Miami had advanced to the postseason, he would’ve played in the team’s wild card matchup.
But the Dolphins did not advance, which effectively gave Tagovailoa more time to recover with no pressure.
It turns out that’s a good thing, based on the quarterback’s answer when asked on Tuesday when he felt better from the hip issue.
“I would say it started to feel a little better more so like in February,” Tagovailoa said in his Tuesday press conference, via transcript from the team.
Tagovailoa noted that while the exact issue was identified, he didn’t want to disclose what it was. He added that if he can protect himself better, then it shouldn’t necessarily be an issue going forward.
How can he do that?
“Doing everything I can to stay available for the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “Like I’ve said before in the past, nothing changes with that. It’s knowing when is the time to give up on a play. I would say the longevity for me to be on the field with my guys is more important than whatever that one play is. You have more quarters than there would be within just that one play I’m trying to show the guys I’m competitive and whatnot. I know they know that, but it’s a nature thing. It just comes natural to me to compete in that sense, and that’s just the thing I fight with every time.”
Tagovailoa, who’s entering his sixth pro season, said that he’s using practice to develop that feel of when it’s time to bail out of a play and live to see the next down.
“I’ve got to sort of shift my mindset of this isn’t just practice where guys can’t hit me, I’ve got to take it into a sense where if this guy is here, get the ball out,” Tagovailoa said. “And if I’m scrambling and this guy is getting close, not to just hold on to it knowing they can hit me if it was real football. Just throw it away, or just run and just stop to signify to slide if you will, but I think it’s the transition and focus of bringing that game-like feel into practice.”
Tagovailoa started 11 games last season, marking the third time in the last four seasons that he played 13 or fewer games as Miami’s full-time starter. He played all 17 games in 2023, leading the league in passing yards to help Miami get to the postseason.
