Dolphins prepare for life without Tyreek Hill after gruesome injury

David Furones, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Sep 30, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins, even with the backdrop of star wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s gruesome knee injury, were allowed to relish their first win of the season.

The Dolphins (1-3) salvaged themselves from a winless September by beating the New York Jets, 27-21, on Monday night, but immediately Tuesday, especially with a truncated week of preparation for the Carolina Panthers, the focus shifts to a sobering reality.

The Dolphins are now faced with life after Hill as the 31-year-old speedster is done for the season after a knee dislocation that is accompanied by multiple torn ligaments, including the ACL.

“There is no replacing him,” said tight end Darren Waller, who made an immediate impact as a member of the Dolphins on Monday with two touchdowns in his Miami debut, “but I feel like we got guys that can get the job done.”

Aided by Hill’s strong spirit in the wake of his tragic injury, the Miami offense responded well within the game against the Jets.

Three plays after the scary scene, Waller caught his second touchdown to put the Dolphins up two scores. After the Jets narrowed the deficit thanks to a highlight-reel touchdown scramble by quarterback Justin Fields, Miami scored again, this time it was running back De’Von Achane.

It also helped that the Dolphins forced three turnovers after not creating any takeaways in their first three games.

That all can serve as a microcosm of what Miami must do going forward to turn one win into momentum in the face of the adversity of losing Hill.

“I guess it’ll take what the players were doing after he left,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “It’s football. It’s 100 percent injury rate. Man, he’s great, valuable and a very important player to us, but every team has the same situation going on, different cadence. Everybody has injuries no one cares about.

“So it’s the team playing football together, and I think it would be important for us to continue to be plus-three (in turnover margin) like we were in this game against the Jets and a litany of things.”

McDaniel may now be forced into leaning on the run game like he did Monday. The Dolphins ran 31 times for 123 yards, with Achane accounting for 99 rushing yards on 20 carries. Tua Tagovailoa threw 25 times, completing 17 passes for 177 yards and the two touchdowns to Waller.

As the speedy Hill exits for Miami, enter the 6-foot-6 Waller, who gives the team a red-zone target to finish drives.

“Just next man up,” Achane said. “I feel like anybody on this team, when they got the ball in their hands, they can make plays.”

Beyond the infusion of Waller, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle will be looked to as that next man up.

He had three receptions for 48 yards Monday and has 17 catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns in four games. Waddle can no longer benefit from Hill drawing most of the attention from opposing defenses, but other teams may ease up on how often they play two-high shells that have limited Tagovailoa getting the ball to Hill and Waddle if they only have to account for one and not both.

“Tyreek is one of them guys that it changes for the whole team, it changes for the whole offense,” Waddle said of Hill being out. “He means a lot to the offense, not just going out there and making plays, but having his spirit and energy out there and his leadership out there. I think it changes for the team, we all have to step up. We all got to play for him, and we are all praying for him.”

McDaniel is wondering how differently defenses will play his offense.

“It’ll change, but at the same time, I think teams want to prevent explosives and will do that,” the Dolphins coach said. “If we don’t earn stuff on the ground or on the line of scrimmage, they’ll give us space. No one is going to make themselves vulnerable in the pass for no run threat, so I think it has a bigger effect on how defenses play us. If we’re not getting big gains or running the ball well versus two-shell defenses, they’ll continue to play two-shell.”

Hill is undergoing surgery Tuesday. He will certainly miss the remainder of the 2025 season, and recovery could take him into the 2026 season.

This was already expected to likely be Hill’s final season with the Dolphins.

Hill has a $5 million roster bonus and $11 million guarantee that is set to kick in if he is on the roster by the third day of the following league year in March. But with no guarantees on the $36 million currently on his contract for next season, Miami is only more likely to move on. In the short term, Hill’s contract contained $1.8 million of per-game active-roster bonuses for this season, $1.4 million of which he will no longer see as the Dolphins are bound to place him on injured reserve.