It's not an exaggeration to say that the Miami Dolphins looked like the worst team in the NFL in Week 1 of the 2025 season. They were unprepared and seemingly uninterested in their blowout loss to the middling-at-best Indianapolis Colts.
Some will argue that it was just one game, but others (correctly, in my opinion) will point to this being a bigger issue and that the Dolphins are in for a long season.
The right thing to do is to build from the ground up (again), and it starts with trading star wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
Rumblings of a Hill trade began as soon as he quit on the team in the Dolphins' regular-season finale last season, in which he followed up with a post-game interview indicating heavily that he wanted out.
For a multitude of reasons, however, Hill remains in Miami. Yet, if the Dolphins continue to lose embarrassingly, as the Week 1 loss to the Colts would suggest, Hill will, in all likelihood, find himself in another uniform by the November trade deadline.
4 teams the Dolphins should call about a Tyreek Hill trade
1. Kansas City Chiefs
We'll start with the team that drafted Hill to begin with in the Kansas City Chiefs. Up front, I will say, though, that the Dolphins will not be receiving the same or similar compensation as to what they gave away to the Chiefs in 2022 to acquire Hill.
Those who disagree will point to his 1,700-plus receiving yards seasons when he got to Miami, but that feels like a lifetime ago already, and he's coming off a down year in which he didn't even reach 1,000. Hill's also on the wrong side of 30 now.
Nevertheless, Hill has been linked back to Kansas City ever since trade rumors for the future Hall of Famer began to resurface. Truthfully, the Chiefs never really replaced Hill following his departure. Then, again, they've done just fine without him by winning back-to-back Super Bowls and appearing in three straight.
However, there are occasions where the Chiefs' offense can look out of sorts, and not having a reliable WR1 becomes glaring. (It showed in Week 1.)
They've tried through the draft, using early picks to take Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy. Rice seems like a legit WR1, but his six-game suspension to start the season cripples the Chiefs' positional group. Meanwhile, the jury remains out on Xavier Worthy, who also left Kansas City's Week 1 matchup early against the Los Angeles Chargers with an injury.
With Rice suspended, Worthy banged up, and tight end Travis Kelce starting to show his age, if Hill were to be traded to Kansas City, it would likely come much earlier than the November 4 trade deadline.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers had to hold on in their Week 1 victory over the New York Jets -- with the help of a former Dolphin. However, that could be an indication that the Jets will be better than expected, more than that the Steelers played poorly.
Pittsburgh scored 34 points in the win, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers looked good in his Steelers debut. After already acquiring WR DK Metcalf in the offseason, the Steelers could be in position to go all-in and take on someone like Hill, who could put them over the top.
The front offices of the Steelers and Dolphins have already made a splash trade together in 2025, with the former sending safety Minkah Fitzpatrick back to Miami in return for cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith. And yet, there are already rumblings that Hill could be on his way to Pittsburgh as well.
Should the Steelers get off to a strong start, Hill could join some familiar faces.
3. Arizona Cardinals
Miami's front office may elect to move Hill out of the AFC entirely, and it's one that Dolphins fans likely prefer. But any move to the Arizona Cardinals would likely occur closer to the deadline.
The Cardinals are a wild-card team for 2025 — not necessarily that they'll be in the NFC Wild Card, but that they could be in the postseason picture, or they could be picking in the top five of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Arizona was 6-4 to start the 2024 season before falling in five of its last seven games to miss the postseason. Given their schedule, the Cardinals could be at an even better winning percentage this year before the trade deadline, which could spark their interest in a big move like acquiring Hill.
Arizona doesn't have much behind Marvin Harrison Jr. at the wide receiver position, but adding a player of Hill's caliber could make the Cardinals a sneaky and dangerous playoff team.
4. Seattle Seahawks
For fairly similar reasons as the Cardinals, the Seattle Seahawks could be in play for Hill down the stretch. The NFC West looks to be one of the toughest divisions in the NFL this year, with it truly being anyone's for the taking.
The Seahawks got off on the wrong foot in their Week 1 loss to the division-rival San Francisco 49ers. Quarterback Sam Darnold totaled 150 yards passing, with WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba receiving 124 of them. Cooper Kupp had just two receptions for 15 yards in his Seahawks debut, and no other Seattle player finished with more than seven yards receiving.
JSN is a rising star, and I think Hill would remain the WR2 in a move to Seattle, based on where the two are in their careers. But Kupp disappointed in his first game with the Seahawks and seemed invisible for much of the game. In fact, besides Smith-Njigba, Seattle's entire offense looked invisible.
Hill isn't the player he was just two short years ago, but he could provide a spark to the Seahawks' offense and become a top target for Darnold.