Tua Tagovailoa can forgive, but he won’t soon forget.
The Dolphins quarterback revealed Wednesday that star receiver Tyreek Hill is working to rebuild relationships with his teammates after he shockingly declared, “I’m out,” at the end of last season before walking back on the startling remarks.
“When you say something like that, you don’t just come back from that with a, ‘Hey, my bad,'” Tagovailoa told reporters at training camp, according to CBS Miami’s Mike Cugno and NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe.
“You gotta work that relationship up, you gotta build everything up again, and it’s still a work in progress. Not just for me, but for everybody. Like I said, he’s working on himself, he’s working on the things he says he wants to get better with and do better on, so, that’s the first step to me and so, I commend him for doing that.”
Since arriving in Miami in 2022 following a trade with the Chiefs, Hill, 31, has established a rapport with Tagovailoa, 27, often going to bat for the former first-round pick against Dolphins detractors.
The Pro Bowl wideout eclipsed 1,700 receiving yards in his first two seasons with the Dolphins and reached the playoffs both times, falling short in the wild-card round.
Although there was optimism entering the 2024 campaign as the Dolphins extended Tagovailoa on a four-year, $212.4 million deal, things quickly spiraled as the regular season got underway.
Tagovailoa was sidelined for several weeks after experiencing another mid-game concussion in a Week 2 loss to the Bills. The QB suffered two concussions during the 2022 season.
The losses continued to pile up entering Week 8, when Tagovailoa returned, but late-season pushes weren’t enough to bolster Miami’s playoff hopes as the team wrapped the year at 8-9.
Hill, who appeared in all 17 games and fell just shy of 1,000 receiving yards (959), stirred controversy after the team’s season-finale loss to the Jets on Jan. 5 by suggesting he wanted out of South Beach.
“What y’all had heard at the end of the season was frustration,” Hill said after the remarks went viral. “I’ve been winning my whole life, bruh. Y’all don’t understand, I bust my ass every day. I deserve to feel like that; I deserve to have some kind of opinion.”
Hill later doubled down on his adoration for Tagovailoa with a “public apology tour.”
“Tua is my guy, he always will be my guy no matter what,” Hill said in February on “Up & Adams.” “He understands my frustration. We all want to win. Tua he’s another competitor, he’s a hell of a competitor, a lot of people don’t know that. He’s a winner, he’s consistent, so I’m looking forward to us continuing to build our relationship. And this is my public apology tour. I love you, bro.”
It’s been a controversial 12 months for Hill, who was detained by police before a Week 1 win over the Jaguars last September. He was later embroiled in a domestic dispute with his estranged wife, Keeta Hill, who filed for divorce in April.
Hill practiced at training camp Wednesday as the Dolphins look ahead to the upcoming season.
When they take the field in Week 1 against the Colts on Sept. 7, it’ll be without cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith, who were dealt to the Steelers in a June blockbuster, with Miami acquiring safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in return.