With the Kansas City Chiefs, Tyreek Hill rose to NFL superstardom. Now he wears the jersey of the Miami Dolphins. Head coach Mike McDaniel reveals how that came about.

Munich – The trade between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins for Tyreek Hill was a real bang for the buck this offseason. By no means the only one. But one with reverberations.

The speedy and also hugely productive wide receiver left the AFC West’s top team to join a franchise that has waited more than two decades to win in the playoffs.

Mike McDaniel also thought a deal with “Cheetah” was completely utopian. The loquacious head coach, who had pitched his tents on South Beach just a few weeks earlier, revealed that.

McDaniel on Hill: “You can have anything for him “

In an interview with “The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz”, the 39-year-old spoke about the moment he was about to settle in for an afternoon off with his wife and daughter together. And general manager Chris Grier had appeared in his office to inform him that the ‘Fins were seriously interested in Hill.

“That’s not why I became GM,” McDaniel chuckled in retrospect: “For me, it was, ‘Tell them they can have anything for him.’ I thought he was unattainable.” Nowhere near everything, but the Dolphins ultimately moved out a first-, second- and fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft, as well as a fourth- and fifth-round pick in next year’s draft, for the six-time Pro Bowler, who was drafted only 165th overall in 2016.

Dolphins coach goes all in on phone call with Hill

It was a rocky road to the agreement, however – because unsurprisingly, there were many other interested parties in Hill. But McDaniel had tasted blood. He studied scenes of the 28-year-old for hours to be able to show the superstar the advantages of the Dolphins plan for his game.

Finally, the crucial conversation between the two was about to take place. McDaniel was handed the phone and immediately launched into a similarly impressive performance as Hill did on the turf when the snap was taken. “I threw everything I had into it,” he reported, “After 20 or 30 seconds of not giving him any chance to speak himself, all of a sudden he was like, ‘Oh Coach, I’m in.'”

Hills Yes freaks McDaniel out

With that, McDaniel had done all the work for his new employer, setting the stage for his first season as a head coach in the NFL. “That settled it. And I was just like, ‘What!’ I immediately freaked out, I was actually yelling. It was the only time I yelled around in my office,” he recalled.

He continued, “It was a cool moment, of course, but I could have used a little heads-up before I went straight to recruiting him to seal the deal.” A deal he had thought was completely unrealistic just days before.

Hill tied up until after 2026 season

“I honestly thought he was one of those untouchable guys you weren’t going to get anyway,” he summed up, still in disbelief. “But when [Grier] suddenly came in and told me the Chiefs had talked to him, I responded, ‘Chris, that’s one of the few non-quarterbacks you have to do anything for.'”

That ultimately included the new four-year, $120 million contract that made Hill the NFL’s highest-paid receiver in the interim. Before that, negotiations on an extension with the Chiefs were said to have broken down. Hill still has one year left on his contract with the Chiefs, which means he is tied up until the end of the 2026 season.