Dolphins hire experienced new receivers coach. And Weaver has second interview with Saints

The Dolphins filled one of two prominent openings on their coaching staff on Friday, hiring Robert Prince as receivers coach.

Prince, whose hiring was initially reported by NFL Network and confirmed by a league source, replaces Wes Welker, who was not retained.

Prince will guide a receiver group that almost assuredly will include Jaylen Waddle and Malik Washington. Whether that group includes Tyreek Hill remains to be seen. Hill indicated after the season finale that he wants out and hasn’t walked that back in any subsequent social media comments.

His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has said Hill is committed to the Dolphins while adding that his comments with Hill would remain confidential.

Hill said on social media on Friday that he will “come back stronger and faster,” without commenting further.

Hill, who led the league in receiving yardage in 2023 with 1799 yards, slipped to 30th this season, with 959 yards. Though Hill failed to come down with a few contested catches, his diminished production was largely a function of teams playing two deep safeties to take away deep shots and partly a function of Tua Tagovailoa missing six games.

Waddle finished 44th in receiving yards with a career low 744 yards, marking the first time in his four-year career that he has finished below 1000 receiving yards in a season.

Prince, 59, was the Cowboys receivers coach the past three years and previously worked as the receivers coach for the Seattle Seahawks (2009), Detroit Lions (2014 through 2020) and Houston Texans (2021).

In Dallas, he coached CeeDee Lamb (who was a first or second team All Pro each of the past three seasons), developed third round pick Jalen Tolbert and extracted production from undrafted KaVontae Turpin, who has 43 catches for 547 yards the past two seasons.

Earlier in his career, Prince served as a running backs and tight ends coach and assistant quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons. He also spent one year as an assistant receivers coach for the Jaguars.

His college coaching experience included seven stops, including offensive coordinator at Boise State and Portland State and receivers coach at Colorado.

Born in Okinawa, Japan, Prince moved with his family to San Bernardino, Cal., as a seven-year-old and played football at San Bernardino Valley College.

Prince’s hiring leaves the Dolphins with one significant staff opening: a special teams coach to replace Danny Crossman, who was not retained.

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints announced that they completed their second interview with Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who met with the Saints on Friday after a virtual interview the previous week.

As of Friday, he remained in contention for the Saints’ head coaching job. Other candidates include former Cowboys and Packers coach Mike McCarthy, Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady and Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

The Saints and the Cowboys are the only teams without a head coach.