When Miami traded a bounty of draft picks to Kansas City for wide receiver Tyreek Hill four years ago and then gave him a four-year, $120-million extension, the hope was that he’d deliver for the Dolphins what he did for the Chiefs.
Hill was part of two Super Bowl teams and one championship in Kansas City. Conversely, many wondered if the Chiefs would fall off without one of the NFL’s most elite downfield weapons.
Well, the Chiefs went on to win the next two Super Bowls and play in three straight overall after that trade. And the Dolphins, well, they didn’t win a single playoff game with Hill, making it to the wild-card round his first two years in Miami.
It turns out Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes no matter who is around him, and Tua Tagovailoa is … well, you get it.
Hill remained elite those first two years with the Dolphins, posting lines of 119 catches for 1,710 yards and 7 TDs in 2022 and 119-1,799-13 in 2023, leading the league in receiving yards and TDs that season.
His production dropped to a still-very-solid 81-959-6 in 2024 while questions about his happiness in Miami and future with the Dolphins started to mount. And then Hill sustained a dislocated knee and torn ACL in Week 4 of this past season.
The Dolphins released Hill on Monday, making the 32-year-old one of the more … notable wide receivers on the free agent market.
Can a player whose success was so significantly predicated on being the fastest player on the field return to form at this age after such a significant knee injury?
How many suitors will there be for his services, factoring in not only the age and injury question but also the troubling off-the-field issues that have persisted throughout his career? (That most recently includes a messy divorce from ex-wife Keeta Vaccaro finalized last year in which he denied her allegations of abuse.)
That second part can only be determined by the respective teams and their decision-makers if they choose to vet the potential of signing Hill.
5 Potential Landing Spots For Tyreek Hill
From a purely football standpoint, though, here are five landing spots that make sense.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs took a chance on Hill in the first place, drafting him in the fifth round (165th overall) in 2016 even though he’d been dismissed from Oklahoma State for a domestic violence arrest. So, nothing that has happened off the field since then should surprise them.
And it was painfully obvious last season the Chiefs needed more offensive weapons for Mahomes, who was having a down season before tearing his ACL. Future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce may or may not return for another season, but he’s not a No. 1 option anymore.
Rashee Rice was supposed to take that role, but he was suspended for the first six games of last season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy stemming from an arrest for a high-speed car crash. And then last month, the Chiefs acknowledged they are aware of domestic violence allegations made against him by an ex-girlfriend.
Xavier Worthy, a first-round draft pick, was solid but not yet the star Kansas City hoped, with 42 catches for 532 yards and a TD in his second season.
A Chiefs reunion makes plenty of sense — football-wise — if the team believes Hill can still be a downfield difference-maker.
2. New England Patriots
The Patriots gambled just last year that another 32-year-old receiver coming off a major knee injury could regain his form when they signed Stefon Diggs.
That paid off well enough as he caught 85 passes for 1,013 yards and 4 TDs during the regular season and helped New England to the Super Bowl. But he has run into his own off-the-field trouble, pleading not guilty to felony assault charges.
Regardless, the Patriots could stand to surround star young QB Drake Maye with more weapons. Maye has already proven himself to be one of the NFL’s most proficient downfield passers, so he’d be an ideal fit to pair with Hill’s skill set.
3. Buffalo Bills
The Bills have arguably the NFL’s best quarterback yet one of the most modest wide receiver corps.
Khalil Shakir led the team with 719 receiving yards and is best as a complementary option, while Keon Coleman, the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 draft, has been a disappointment so far.
The Bills have great tight ends with Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Know and one of the best running backs in the league in James Cook. Adding a potentially elite WR (if Hill can still be that) might just help get Allen over the hump finally in pursuit of an elusive Super Bowl appearance.
4. San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers have been on the track to an unceremonious separation from wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who did not play this season while recovering from injury as his relationship with the team meanwhile continued to dissolve.
San Francisco was beset by injuries in 2025 and now has star tight end George Kittle just beginning a long rehab back from a torn Achilles, but the 49ers are still built to win now and will expect to reload to fill needs.
Whether Hill is a personality fit for the organization or not is another question, but they badly need to add a No. 1 WR after relying on solid complementary receivers like Jauan Jennings and Kendrick Bourne while talented young WR Ricky Pearsall has struggled to stay on the field.
5. Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens are in win-now mode with QB Lamar Jackson in his prime, Derrick Henry still an elite running back, etc., and that was made clear when the team decided the status quo wasn’t good enough despite nearly two decades of stability under former coach John Harbaugh.
Baltimore’s ownership/management is going to want to prove it made the right decision in moving on from Harbaugh and hiring head coach Jesse Minter while prying up-and-coming offensive coordinator Declan Doyle from the Bears.
The Ravens have a No. 1 WR in Zay Flowers (86-1,211-5 last season), but another field-stretcher could really open up the underneath game for the likes of Henry and veteran tight end Mark Andrews (with fellow TE Isaiah Likely hitting free agency).
