• Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel expects Tyreek Hill to remain with the team but acknowledges Hill’s need for growth.
• Hill expressed frustration after the Dolphins missed the playoffs, his first time doing so in his career.
• McDaniel believes Hill’s actions demonstrate a commitment to change and improvement.

PALM BEACH — Coach Mike McDaniel said Monday that he expects receiver Tyreek Hill to remain a member of the Miami Dolphins — but he isn’t expecting the same Tyreek Hill as the one everyone witnessed in 2024.

McDaniel, speaking with reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting, said he has “no reason to think” Hill would be traded before the season. McDaniel on multiple occasions said he expects a changed Hill from the one last seen saying he wanted out of Miami following an 8-9 season that included no playoff berth.

In fact, McDaniel said he’d be OK if players voted Hill a team captain once again.

“I think in that scenario, I would be pumped if he was voted captain,” McDaniel said. “Because I think that Tyreek, being accountable for who he is as a competitor and what he’s learned from in his journey, I think that means that his teammates have seen him completely … embraced the whole process of, ‘Hey, I’m a human being. This is wrong. This is right. This is how we want to do things.’

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“So to me, this would be a healthy evolution.”

Hill had an emotional rant moments after the Dolphins lost to the New York Jets in the season finale. It marked the first time in Hill’s career he would not go to the playoffs, which he found unacceptable.

Hill has since said on podcasts and through his agent that he wants to remain in Miami, although he has not met with reporters to answer questions.

McDaniel sees this as an opportunity for Hill to prove to teammates he has had a change of heart — and for teammates to welcome it.

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“I think that’s what Tyreek’s up for — up for the challenge, because Tyreek wants to set the standard of what type of competitors we have,” McDaniel said.

But as late as Sunday night, Hill was posting messages on social media that appeared to be tinking/joking/trolling in the area of a trade. Hill being Hill, it’s entirely probable it was nothing more than that — trolling — so McDaniel understands how some fans will need convincing.

“I totally would anticipate and totally understand the scope with which the fan base has a vision,” he said.

So what gives him confidence?

“I’m speaking from a place of that’s a scar when it happens to you,” he said. “It’s what I talked about on my couch the day after the game with Tyreek. That’s like, ‘Hey, that’s something that we have now gone through. What are we going to do about it?’

“And I see action. The phrase that I use with players all the time is that I see better than I hear.”

Hill underwent wrist surgery this offseason. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said Hill’s doctors recommended he have the operation last summer, even though it would have meant missing the season. Hill opted to play, even though it resulted in a season in which he had only 959 receiving yards after piling up 1,799 the year before.

McDaniel said he’s encouraged because Hill has the go-ahead from doctors to run.

“We won’t rush it so there won’t be any setbacks,” McDaniel said. “But we’ll gradually work him into catching the football and going through that process so that at the end of the offseason program, we should be able to get that work that we were unable to this season before. The key thing is that he can run now.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

Miami Dolphins first-rounder Vontae Davis died at age 35. A year later, we have no answers.