Hill sets Fins’ record for receiving yards in season with early reception
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill continues to rewrite the Dolphins’ record book.
With a 13-yard reception in the first quarter of Sunday night’s game against the Chargers, Hill set the franchise’s record for most receiving yards in a season. He passed Mark Clayton, who recorded 1,389 yards in the 1984 season.
Entering Sunday night, Hill, whom the Dolphins traded for in the offseason and gave a $120 million extension, had recorded 96 catches for 1,379 yards and five touchdowns.
Entering Week 14, Hill was on pace for 1,953 yards, which would come just short of Calvin Johnson’s 1,964-yard season in 2012 (Johnson did it in 16 games, while Hill will have an extra game).
ARMSTEAD RETURNS TO MIAMI LINEUP
Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead played in Sunday night’s game against the Chargers, making his return from a one-game absence because of a pectoral strain.
Armstead, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, had missed two games this season. He sat out last week’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers after injuring his pec against the Houston Texans in Week 12. His return isn’t much of a surprise after the Dolphins did not elevate any other offensive linemen from the practice squad prior to the game.
Armstead took to social media shortly before Sunday’s
game, posting the message: “I’m back.”
The return of Armstead, who signed a five-year,
$75 million deal in March, was a much-needed boost for an offensive line that struggled at times against the San Francisco 49ers. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was sacked three times in the 33-17 loss and was pressured on 27 percent of his dropbacks, according to TruMedia.
It’s the third-highest pressure rate Tagovailoa has seen this season.
“He’s a veteran that always wants to be out there,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “It killed him watching from the sideline. Every time we came off and didn’t score, he’d always come to me, ask me what I’m seeing so that he could relay it to the guys. He would relay something from the O-line to me and kind of ask me, ‘Hey, if you could just stay in this spot more than this spot, just because this guy is going to need a little
more help.’
“So he’s kind of the visionary for the guys up front. He’s the captain for those guys up there, and we all respect him. So just seeing how much this means to him, football and what he’s doing to try to get back out there to play with us, it’s pretty remarkable. I think this is his 10th year or 11th year, and he’s up there in the trenches — that’s hard. That’s hard, so for him to have gone through all the challenges that he’s gone through and continue to go through, you have to be strongminded.”
Offensive tackle Eric Fisher, who signed with the team on Monday, also was active. Fisher, a twotime Pro Bowler, is expected to be a reserve on the offensive line.
Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (knee) was inactive for the fourth consecutive game, leaving rookie Skylar Thompson to serve as the team’s backup to Tagovailoa.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said this week that Bridgewater was nearing a return to action.
“He knows when it’s ‘go time’ for his body and how his body needs to respond,” McDaniel said Friday. “We know we’re getting close.”
Also inactive for the Dolphins: running back
Myles Gaskin, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, wide receivers Erik Ezukanma and River Cracraft (calf) and tight end
Hunter Long.
Rucker on Dolphins Singer and songwriter
Darius Rucker’s hit song, “Only Wanna Be With You,” has been linked for over two decades with the Dolphins.
It was all thanks to his lyric that says, “I’m such a baby, yeah, the Dolphins made me cry.”
Rucker, 56, who rose to fame in the 1990s with the group Hootie and the Blowfish, revisited the song in a tease for the lead-in for “Sunday Night Football.”
“Things are looking a little different a couple of decades later,” Rucker said in the segment. “The days of those Fins making me cry have dried up.”
Rucker did acknowledge that the Dolphins “had their hands full” playing against the guy (Justin Herbert) that came into the league one pick after “our guy” (Tagovailoa).
Rucker was the latest among a number of notable sports and entertainment celebrities to take part in the segment which include actors Rob Lowe, Bradley Cooper Jon Hamm,
Michael Jordan