In recent years, no one has been a bigger public supporter of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa than superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
During an exclusive sit-down with “The Pivot” podcast — which premiered on March 5 — however, Hill offered an honest assessment of one area he’d like to see Tagovailoa take the next step in 2024. And it all stemmed from a question about Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
“I ain’t gon’ lie, Pat, he a different dude bro,” Hill told co-host Ryan Clark and company. “He obviously the best quarterback in the league.”
“Now, what I said about Tua being the most accurate… this year for Tua, this is a build-on season because this was obviously his best season of his career,” the playmaker went on. “We gonna go from accurate to being that fearless, cocky — well, not really cocky but [confident] — he gon’ continue to add onto his game, because he’s got the skill set and he got the supporting cast to do it.”
Hill then went back to talking about Mahomes, providing an example from one of his years with the Chiefs.
“Pat [is] a different dude, and I’m going to tell you how he’s a different dude,” the pass-catcher explained. “I can’t remember what year it was, but [KC was] on a bad streak. Like, [Mahomes’] supporting cast was playing bad — me, [Travis] Kelce, [Demarcus Robinson], Mecole [Hardman], Sammy [Watkins] — we all was playing bad. This dude called the whole offense up [on the phone]… he called us all up [and] cussed all of us the [expletive] out.”
Hill noted that he truly respected Mahomes as a leader in that moment because he “stood on business,” which put “fuel in my heart.”
“That’s one thing that our quarterback, he gon’ add,” Hill voiced, bringing the conversation back to Tagovailoa.
Tyreek Hill Offers Constructive Criticism of Dolphins’ Offensive Dynamic, Says 2024 Will Be Better
Continuing on, Hill admitted that getting called out by a leader motivates him when he’s not playing up to his standard. Apparently, he’d like to see more of that within the Dolphins locker room on the offensive side.
“With Pat, we all had a relationship with Pat. Like, we all hangout, we all do stuff outside of football,” he stated. “In Miami, we’re still building that. It hasn’t got to that yet. But I’m telling you, [in 2024] it’s going to get to that, because we done had some battles in there already but it ain’t been a battle where it’s like — we can have a conversation, but then we can come back the next play and be like, hey bro, I think you should do that. It’s been — nah, [expletive] you — and then I’ll talk to you later, or next week.”
“And we don’t need that,” Hill finally concluded. “It need to be like — look bro, we need to do this, yada yada yada, you need to get open, I need to be better — and then we need to come back and talk about it, not have grudges against each other. Because we all trying to win… Being able to have them tough conversations, it’s needed I feel like, because that got us better [on the Chiefs].”
How Will Dolphins Teammates Take Tyreek Hill’s ‘Pivot’ Comments About Tua Tagovailoa & Accountability?
The candid bit of constructive criticism from Hill is a display of leadership in itself, but it’s hard to say how it will be received by teammates.
In one sense, you could say Hill is taking a page out of the Mahomes’ book of leadership — encouraging teammates to hold each other accountable in 2024. And in turn, be more receptive in those moments of correction.
In another, one could argue that this conversation should have been had behind closed doors. Remember, Mahomes called Hill and his former teammates up on the phone in his story, he didn’t blast anyone on a podcast.
Hill has become the face of the Dolphins franchise since joining the organization via trade. That comes with a ton of responsibility — most of which “the Cheetah” has handled with poise.
Having said that, at times, he’s still a little too quick to speak on private matters publicly. This could end up being one of those times.
Comments
Tyreek Hill Explains 1 Way Tua Tagovailoa Can Learn From Patrick Mahomes