KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Four months after hinting a serious knee injury might prompt him to call it quits, Tyreek Hill insisted on social media that he will be back playing football.

It just won’t be with Miami.

The Dolphins released Hill on Monday, the aftermath of which leaves a player who has garnered plenty of publicity for his play on the field and for his behavior off it now stepping into a different spotlight.

Free agency.

He’s a first-timer here. If he indeed still wants to play again — and even his agent said he has “a long road ahead of him” in his rehab from a knee dislocation and ACL tear — he’ll have to find a new home.

Or would it be his old home?

You’ll see the Chiefs, his former employer, linked as a potential destination, if you haven’t already.

But they ought to hesitate because of the injury.

And for reasons beyond it.

The injury first: Drew Rosenhaus, Hill’s agent, talked about the wide receiver’s recovery during an interview with Miami-based sportscaster Josh Moser.

“One day at a time. He’s got a long road ahead of him,” Rosenhaus said. “But nobody works harder than Tyreek. He’s done a fabulous job. All in all, he’s progressing well. He had a challenging injury, but he is working his tail off to do everything he can to get back as soon as possible.

“But certainly Tyreek would be the first one to say he still has a lot of work to do.”

That sounds like some real doubt about his future, especially in the immediacy.

Hill’s health will be at the forefront of any conversation about his potential return and landing spot. Can a player whose success has been reliant on top-end speed have the same success if he’s not the fastest man on the field, considering even if he does come back, he’ll be 32?

That answer will determine what his value will be on the open market — because the days of the young Tyreek Hill are likely done. (The numbers suggest they were headed that way in 2024, before the injury, by the way.)

If the Chiefs have this conversation internally, they would of course consider Hill’s health — but they ought to consider a couple of aspects beyond it.

We probably say this every year, but this is an important offseason in Kansas City. The Chiefs endured a year without the playoffs for the first time since Patrick Mahomes arrived. They finished 6-11.

The failures of last year should compel them to move forward to the next era — not backward to a past one.

Four years ago, the Chiefs made a gutsy move, trading Hill to Miami for a haul of draft picks. That move transitioned the team to the second wave in the Mahomes era, one that built the foundation for two more Super Bowls and the first back-to-back championships the NFL had awarded in two decades.

It’s time for the third wave.

It’s not time for a return to the first.

The Chiefs need to repeat the difficult decision they made in February 2022 — move on from some of the players who sparked past success.

That doesn’t mean walking away from top-end talent. But it’s hard to transition to the next era when the past era — or previous eras — are sitting in the locker room.

A team that had a 36-year-old tight end leading the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns has firsthand evidence. The Chiefs need to establish a new go-to receiver, and bringing in a 32-year-old who has known no other role doesn’t solve that problem. It provides a potential hurdle.

Wherever he lands, how would Hill handle playing a less-featured role in an offense?

That speaks to the last aspect.

The conversation in which we’re engaged now — prioritizing the next wave over the last one — should be the theme of the next couple of months.

But there’s already been an obvious theme to the initial month of this Chiefs offseason — you know, while several other teams were still playing football. In a Zoom call after the season, Mahomes said he wanted to bring a culture of accountability back to the building, back to everyday practice, and the Chiefs hired Eric Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator.

Does Hill fit that?

Yes, by all accounts — not just the one from Rosenhaus — Hill never had a problem as a worker.

But that’s not all you get. You get the distractions, and there tend to be a lot of them. That’s not strictly a reference to his off-the-field issues, though those traveled with Hill from Kansas City to Miami.

In the Dolphins’ regular-season finale in 2024, Hill refused to go back into the game — a move that surprised his head coach, who’d later call it unacceptable. After the game, Hill told reporters, “I’m opening the door. I’m out, bro.”

The argument here isn’t that a single moment defines Hill — or that his talent hasn’t provided some of the best moments of this Chiefs dynasty. Heck, he was voted the No. 1 player in the NFL in 2023.

The argument is what’s left of that player remains a question, even to those who know him best.

And the argument is that for all the questions about his return to pre-injury form, that’s not all there to consider.

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