A few days ago, loose-lipped wide receiver Tyreek Hill admitted he doesn’t want to be traded from the Miami Dolphins.

It was the third time this offseason that Tyreek had to clarify that he doesn’t want to be traded, or that he doesn’t want to leave the Dolphins.

Yes, the third time.

Tyreek will undoubtedly be a team leader for the Dolphins in 2025. He remains their best player and he’s a future Hall of Famer.

But you have to question whether Tyreek’s teammates should vote for him as a team captain in 2025, as they have the previous three seasons.

After all, Tyreek also refused to re-enter the season finale against the New York Jets after learning the Dolphins’ playoff hopes were finished. He initially said a coach told him to stay on the sideline due to a left wrist injury he claimed to have been battling. Then he changed his story and said he didn’t want to re-enter because the Dolphins were eliminated from playoff contention.

That’s not the type of tone-setting behavior you’d expect from a team captain.

There’s a recent precedent for the Dolphins not voting a player a repeat team captain.

Safety Jevon Holland was voted a team captain in 2022 and 2023, but not in 2024.

We’ll see if this happens again when the team captains are announced in early September.

Tyreek said that he spoke out of frustration in the locker room after the 32-20 loss to the Jets when he declared, “I’m out.”

As a team captain and a team leader, Tyreek should have had a better grasp of the situation than to declare such disdain for his team.

Such words should never come out of his mouth, and such thoughts shouldn’t be put on social media when fans aren’t in a joking mood.

The reason to question whether Tyreek should be voted as a captain by his teammates is because of off-field antics such as these.

Tyreek’s behavior isn’t befitting of a team captain. It doesn’t help establish a winning culture.

And to be clear, this has absolutely nothing to do with Tyreek’s personal life.

This is about the things Tyreek does off the field that affect the Dolphins organization, its players, and its fans.

Tyreek, through selfish actions, puts people in awkward, uncomfortable situations.

Tyreek got detained by law enforcement before the 2024 season opener and caused a teammate, defensive tackle Calais Campbell, to be similarly detained, meaning being handcuffed, after trying to diffuse the situation.

After having a poor performance against San Francisco, Tyreek blamed it on a lack of practice time. Coach Mike McDaniel caught a stray in the process. McDaniel was being a nice guy and giving Tyreek veteran rest days during the week. Tyreek claimed the rest days robbed him of valuable practice time with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

McDaniel and Tua had to grudgingly answer questions about that remark.

There’s also the still-unresolved mystery about that right thumb injury that Tyreek claimed to have during training camp, the one that caused him to miss a joint practice at Tampa Bay and prompted McDaniel to make a crack about Tyreek losing a thumb war to him.

The word during the season was that that injury was never real, and McDaniel played along to placate Tyreek.

That shouldn’t happen.

Similarly, teammates shouldn’t have had to answer questions about what they think Tyreek might have meant when he declared “I’m out” after that season ending loss to the Jets.

Tyreek should have clarified his words the following day. But he chose not to speak on locker clean out day.

Tyreek essentially made everyone else speak about his words.

Each player must ask himself whether Tyreek, on and off the field, embodies the spirit and actions of a Dolphins team captain.

No one has a problem with Tyreek on the field.

I still maintain Tyreek practices and plays as hard as any athlete I’ve covered in my career.

To me, only Alonzo Mourning, the Miami Heat Hall of Famer, went harder on a day-to-day basis.

The problem is that Tyreek doesn’t seem to care that he involves others in his goings-on.

Tyreek trolls fans on social media such as he did after the crushing 20-12 Houston loss, when he tweeted, “It’s time for me to go coach.”

Teammates had to answer questions about that tweet. So did Tyreek, eventually.

He said he was just joking, that he wasn’t making a trade request.

That was the second incident last season in which fans wondered whether Tyreek was saying he wanted to be traded.

The first incident was in October.

After Kansas City wide receiver Rashee Rice was sidelined with a season-ending knee injury, Tyreek, who was traded to the Dolphins from the Chiefs, tweeted, “woke up to trade news exciting.”

Fans were upset.

Tyreek laughed and said it wasn’t a trade request, that he doesn’t want to leave.

And those are just the incidents from 2024.

For the record, Tyreek said he’s not among the players who are habitually late for meetings, an issue that came up in season-ending exit interviews.

But the fact that he felt it necessary to say that shows he’s aware of how he’s perceived, that he’s aware people suspect him of being habitually late because it seems to fit.

This is where things are with Tyreek.

You’d almost be surprised to learn he’s not habitually late to meetings.

Expectations should be higher for a team captain, especially on a team that already has culture concerns.

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