Generally guidelines are supposed to be damaged.
The Brandon Marshall commerce the Miami Dolphins pulled off in 2010 taught me one rule concerning the NFL, it’s that it’s irresponsible to commerce draft capital for a participant after which signal that Professional Bowl caliber participant to a record-setting contract.
Huge cash and early draft picks are an excessive amount of for one participant.
However if you happen to’ll permit me, I’d prefer to make an modification to that rule, which is that if the participant is on a Corridor of Fame trajectory, like Tyreek Hill is, exceptions ought to be made.
That’s why it was sensible for the Dolphins to ship the Chiefs a package deal of draft picks that features a late-first-round choice to accumulate the six-time Professional Bowl speedster and three-time All-Professional (2016, 2018 and 2020). They outbid the New York Jets in giving him a brand new four-year, $120 million extension, which included $72.2 million in assured cash, in line with his agent Drew Rosenhaus.
Hill undoubtedly could be well worth the hefty funding of creating him the NFL’s highest-paid receiver, if he may also help Miami get its offense out of second gear.
Final yr, the 28-year-old Hill caught a career-high 111 receptions for 1,239 yards and 9 touchdowns. He has scored 67 touchdowns throughout his six-year profession, together with 5 as a return specialist.
Together with these return scores, that averages out to a exceptional 11.2 touchdowns per season, placing him within the firm of Corridor of Famers like Randy Moss (12 touchdowns a season), Terrell Owens (11.7), Marvin Harrison (10.6) and Jerry Rice (9.9).
That’s the trajectory he’s on if he can play one other 5 or 6 seasons at this tempo.
For now, Hill’s the kind of participant who can flip a easy check-down into a primary down, if not a landing, and does so a number of occasions a recreation. Having that sort of weapon may make the Dolphins a perennial playoff group immediately.
And that’s possible why basic supervisor Chris Grier pulled off the blockbuster deal — and ought to be applauded for it.
Hill has created the blueprint for the kind of receiver the Dolphins have been looking for the previous 5 seasons.
These kinds of electrical playmakers come round a couple of times a decade. They’re exhausting to seek out, and the Chiefs realized they're even harder to maintain.
Hill’s divorce with Kansas Metropolis was surely about cash. It often is, particularly with high wideouts.
To safe a commerce for Hill, the Dolphins needed to write an enormous test, one thing Dolphins proprietor Steve Ross hasn’t shied away from throughout his tenure with the group.
Ross truly embraces it, and this time Miami landed one of many NFL’s premier gamers — a top-10 standout in a league filled with superstars.
The final time that occurred was when the Dolphins lured Ndamukong Suh, signing the defensive deal with to a record-setting, six-year, $114 million deal as a free agent in 2015. Whereas the result of that transaction didn’t precisely mild the NFL on fireplace — primarily as a result of he was a defensive deal with — the frustration wasn’t due to Suh’s expertise. It was because of the lack of influence he had on video games.
Hill is nearly sure to make an influence.
Who cares that Miami misplaced a first-round decide, contemplating Charles Harris, Austin Jackson and Noah Igbinoghene sit in Grier’s pile of first-round whiffs? That simply clarifies why first-round picks are a roll of the cube to start with.
With draft picks, the objective is to get a younger, cheap participant who has sufficient expertise to change into a Tyreek Hill.
Properly, if you happen to’re in place to simply get Hill, why not do it?
Miami did that by bidding massive.
The Dolphins didn’t surpass the five-year, $140 million deal the Raiders gave Davante Adams after they acquired him from Inexperienced Bay for a first- and second-round decide within the 2022 draft. However Hill now holds the report for assured cash given to a receiver on a restructured deal — the one quantity that issues in NFL contracts.
If Hill’s the identical participant he’s been his first six seasons for the following a number of years, who cares what the Dolphins gave as much as get him or how a lot he was paid?
Placing Hill on the alternative facet of Jaylen Waddle, with Mike Gesicki within the seam and Cedrick Wilson Jr. within the slot, plus a forceful dashing assault, the Dolphins could possibly be a power within the AFC if Tua Tagovailoa takes the following step at quarterback.
And with Hill within the combine, that query ought to get some readability as we see if Tagovailoa actually was a product of the Alabama expertise round him.
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