Will the Chiefs Reunite with Their Former All-Pro Receiver in 2026?
They say it’s dangerous to dwell on the past, and while most of the time this proves to be true, other times show us that the past can be the place where we find the solutions to our problems of the present. 2025 was not a good year for both the Kansas City Chiefs and their former number-one wideout, Tyreek Hill. For the Chiefs, they crashed and burned from five Super Bowl appearances in six seasons to just six wins on the year. Hill’s luck was even worse. In a Week Four matchup against the New York Jets, he dislocated his left knee and tore multiple ligaments, ending his season. On February 16th, 2026, the Miami Dolphins released Tyreek Hill, and rumors are circulating that he may return to his former stomping ground. This begs the question, though: why did they ever separate in the first place?
Kansas City first drafted Tyreek Hill in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of West Alabama, and he quickly blossomed from there. As a rookie, he was a First-Team All-Pro as a punt returner and followed that up with three more All-Pro selections, including two in 2018 and one in 2020. What really helped ratchet up his numbers, though, was the emergence of superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes II in Hill’s third season. His previous signal-caller, Alex Smith, was no slouch, but with Mahomes, Hill finally had one with a bazooka for an arm that could match his blazing speed. Add tight end Travis Kelce to that mix, and the result is a deadly offense. The four seasons they played together resulted in four AFC West Division titles, four AFC Championship Game appearances, back-to-back Super Bowl births, and a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LIV. They were an absurd trio, but unfortunately, they did not last very long.
After the 2021 season, Hill wanted a new contract, one that would pay him more than his current salary, 18 million dollars per year, but this was simply too high a price for the Chiefs. They would ship him off to the sunny beaches of Miami for a 2022 first, second, and a pair of fourth-round picks, as well as a sixth-rounder in 2023. In turn, the Dolphins made Hill the highest-paid receiver in NFL history at the time with a four-year, 120 million deal. The ‘Cheetah’ lived up to this lucrative extension with two consecutive seasons of 1,700 receiving yards to go along with 238 catches and 21 touchdowns in that same time span. The downside of this was Hill not having the same playoff success as he did in Kansas City, as the Dolphins bowed out in the first round of both the 2022 and 2023 NFL Playoffs. To top it all off, 2024 was a step back for both Hill and the team, as he finished with under 1,000 receiving yards for the first time since 2019 and Miami finished 8-9, missing the postseason.
Meanwhile, Kansas City had even more postseason success than it did before. The Chiefs won two straight Super Bowls with LVII and LVIII, respectively, even making a third in a row, but falling short of a threepeat. Despite this success, Kansas City never quite replaced the explosiveness of Hill. Using the draft capital from the trade, they drafted receivers Skyy Moore in 2022 and Rashee Rice in 2023, but neither of them could fill the void. They even selected another speedster in 2024 with Xavier Worthy, who broke the record for fastest 40-yard-dash time at 4.21 seconds, but even he could not take Tyreek Hill’s place. Coming off a season where the Chiefs finished just 20th in total yards and 16th in passing yards, they could use a receiver as great as Hill again.
Of course, there’s a lot of risk to this. Hill is 32 years old, coming off a major injury, and has stirred up plenty of drama in recent years. This, along with Kansas City being in a “reloading” phase, means they may not want to take a risk on an aging, potentially expensive receiver like Tyreek Hill. Anything is possible, though, and the Chiefs and the “Cheetah” may be in for one spectacular reunion.
