When Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told head coach Mike McDaniel that Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill was available on the trade market, the first-year head coach could hardly contain himself.
McDaniel revealed that not only was he immediately interested in trading for the six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro wideout, but he was also willing to trade away “everything” in order to get him.
“This is why I’m not a GM,” McDaniel said during an interview on The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz. “I’m like, ‘Tell them they can have everything.’ … I thought he was untouchable.”
McDaniel went on to explain that he did not believe Hill was the type of player that the Chiefs would ever look to trade. And once he hit the market, he told the Dolphins GM they had to do whatever they possibly could in order to land him.
“I quite honestly thought he was one of the untouchable guys that you couldn’t get,” McDaniel said. “When (Grier) comes in and tells me that the Chiefs have talked to him, I said, ‘Chris, that’s one of the only non-quarterbacks where you do whatever it takes.'”
Ultimately, the Dolphins did land Hill, but nobody told McDaniel when the deal was done. So when he was handed the phone with Hill on the other line, he assumed he had to make a recruiting pitch for the star wide receiver.
“I’m shooting every shot that I have,” McDaniel said. “Deep into it, and like 20 or 30 seconds of me not giving him an iota of time to speak, then all of sudden he said, ‘Oh coach, I’m coming.’ It was already done. I was like, ‘What!’ I just freaked out. I think I yelled. It was the only time I yelled in the office. It was a cool time, (but) I just would have liked a little forewarning before I just went straight recruit mode to seal the deal.”
Now, McDaniel will try to make use of the star receiver in his own offense this season.
[CBS Sports, The Dan LeBatard Show]
