On Monday, news came down that the Miami Dolphins were releasing six-time All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who only managed to play in 4 games during his age 31 season after dislocating his knee in Week 4 against the Jets.
An injury-plagued season in 2025 comes one year after a 2024 season that saw a massive regression from the one-time Super Bowl champion - going from a league-leading 1,799 receiving yards in 2023 to 959 in 2024.
Add in the fact that Hill is constantly dealing with off the field issues - truly too many to list off - and Miami’s release of the eight-time Pro Bowler should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to his obvious decline the last two years in South Beach.
With Hill hitting free agency, it’s only natural that Patriots fans immediately take to the internet to discuss whether or not the team should pursue him. This has been the case for, essentially, every big name receiver who has become available either on the trade market or in free agency in the last 20 years. From the Larry Fitzgerald non-photo at Logan Airport to the Brandon Aiyuk pursuit in 2024, New England is always seemingly connected to any and all wide receiver rumors across the league.
The news of Hill’s release broke during Monday’s Jones and Keefe, where Jon Lyons of WEEI and the New England Football Journal was filling in for the guys.
When asked if the Patriots should pursue Hill, he was adamantly against the idea.
Here were Lyons’ reasons why the Patriots would be better off skipping the Hill sweepstakes all together:
1. There’s better options available, and they can’t expect to get lucky again the way they did with Stefon Diggs:
“Maybe they have the conversation, but I wouldn't do it. I think there's better options. I'd much rather throw a lot more money at Alec Pierce, or try to trade for a guy, or try to draft someone in the first round. Again, this a guy in Tyreek Hill who turns 32 in a couple weeks. He's coming off a major injury. He's had off the field, in-locker room problems pretty much everywhere he's been. And it was a bad situation in Miami with Mike McDaniel and Tua [Tagovailoa] and all that, but his production early in the season last year wasn't quite the same as it had been the previous couple of years.
“The Patriots just got really lucky with Stefon Diggs, and everything worked out with him up until December when that police report came out. But then he still played and got to the Super Bowl. Do we think they're going to get lucky again for a whole year with Tyreek Hill on top of it? I think that's playing with fire a little bit.”
2. Sticking with Diggs is a safer bet than rolling with Hill:
“Diggs is going to be healthier than Hill this year, and we already know he works well with Drake Maye…Now we already have evidence that they work well together, and he's healthier on top of it. So I don't see the sense in swapping Hill for Diggs one-to-one.”
3. There’s value in having a young receiver grow with Drake Maye:
“I'd also much rather have a younger guy to grow with Drake Maye in this offense…I'm saying Alec Pierce is better than Tyreek Hill and Stefon Diggs, and he's 25. I'd rather give him $100 million than give Tyreek Hill $15 million for one year, or whatever.”
4. The Patriots don’t need another short wide receiver:
“A lot of the Patriots’ receivers are not big guys, right? Like, [Kyle] Williams is 5-foot-10, [Kayshon] Boutte 5-foot-11, Diggs is 6-foot-0. Tyreek Hill’s another one of those guys who's not a big guy - he's 5-foot-10, too. They also need to add size. So again, if I'm picking a receiver to add in free agency, not only do I want someone younger and better than him, I want someone of a different size profile as well.”
5. Alec Pierce should be their focus, not Hill:
“I’ve said the name already - I think it's Alec Pierce, receiver from the Colts. I could see them - 25 years old, big dude, I think he averaged 21 yards per reception this year. A legit, big-play threat. That's a guy I could see them giving $30 million or more a year to. Because we've seen them already try, right? They offered Aiyuk $30 million a year, he said, ‘no.’ Same thing with [Chris] Godwin. I think if you offer Pierce something like that, since you've [gone to] the Super Bowl and you have Maye, I think he says, ‘yes.’”
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