Dolphins release Tyreek Hill: Answering biggest questions - ESPN

Eighteen months ago, Tyreek Hill agreed to a restructured contract with the Miami Dolphins. He was coming off back-to-back seasons with over 1,700 receiving yards and was the cornerstone of one of the league's best offenses. Early on President's Day 2026, weeks before the start of free agency begins March 11, the Dolphins released Hill.

The franchise is in a very different place now than it was then. It has a new coach in Jeff Hafley and a new general manager in Jon-Eric Sullivan. It has missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons after reaching the postseason in the previous two. Hill, too, has not replicated the success he found early on with the Dolphins, failing to reach 1,000 receiving yards in 2024 and missing most of 2025 after dislocating a knee and tearing an ACL.

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The Hill release was expected heading into this offseason, but its timing caught many off guard. Why did the Dolphins release the five-time first-team All-Pro, what's his recovery timeline and what interest could he draw in free agency?

ESPN NFL Nation Dolphins reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques, NFL insider Jeremy Fowler and ESPN injury analyst Stephania Bell weigh in on everything you need to know.

Hill signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the Dolphins in 2022, and agreed to a restructured deal in 2024 that pushed his guaranteed money to $106.5 million — an NFL record for a skill player. He didn't have any guaranteed money coming in 2026, but the receiver still carried a $51.1 million cap hit this season.

The cap numbers were tolerable when Hill was productive, but his past two seasons were a far cry from his first two in