The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl without a star wide receiver, but they could reportedly make an elite offense even scarier by acquiring DeAndre Hopkins.
NFL insider Benjamin Albright told PHNX Cardinals that Kansas City is the "primary suitor" for Hopkins. He doesn't know the draft compensation the Cardinals would receive, but he said it's more likely they get a second-round pick than a first.
After the 2022 season, theScore's Jordan Schultz reported that the Cardinals plan to trade Hopkins this offseason.
Arizona hired a new general manager and head coach after a disappointing four-win season, and Hopkins is set to make $19.45 million (with a $30.75 million cap hit) in 2023. The Cardinals could seek a clean slate by moving the three-time All-Pro wideout, who turns 31 in June.
Hopkins began his Cardinals career by tallying 1,407 yards and six touchdowns in 2020. However, multiple lower body injuries limited him to 10 games in 2021, and he served a six-game suspension to start the 2022 season for violating the NFL's PED policy.
Yet he remains an impact player when on the field. Hopkins totaled 474 receiving yards in six full games with quarterback Kyler Murray last season.
Now imagine what he can accomplish when catching passes from Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs flourished without a star replacement for Tyreek Hill, but they could still benefit by solidifying the position this offseason. JuJu Smith-Schuster is a free agent after garnering 78 catches for 933 yards on a one-year deal. The depth chart features several talented question marks in Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Adding Hopkins could be great news for Kansas City, but terrible for all opposing defenses.
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Originally Posted by Superturtle:
THATS your barometer??? :-) You do realize over half the games in any given league year are decided by one score or less, right?
And yet you choose to believe Hopkins wouldn't move the needle. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
They lost Edmunds, and that's about it.
Chiefs lost Thornhill, Saunders, Juju, Hardman, Clark...we can play this all day.
The margins between these two teams will always be razor thin as long as one has Mahomes and the other has Allen.
This was true both before Von, and after Tyreek.
And VM. There's no saying he'll be back to 100%. And he was their entire pass rush, apparently. He certainly made the most difference.
And then there's the fact that they lost their DC. It's a coinflip whether the new guy will be better. Probably not.
And Thornhill, Saunders, Juju, Hardman, Clark are largely replaceable quantities.
Really this about coaching. I don't doubt that Diggs and DHop would be a huge problem for our defense, if say Sean Payton or Doug Pederson were the OC. Dorsey I'm not scared of. The guy calls plays to call plays, nothing more. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's a metrics guy. He knows nothing about how to set up a defense, how to scheme guys open, how to be multiple in his attack, pacing, etc.
So yeah, DHop to BUF would be a problem, but not insurmountable. Just another tall task for Andy/Pat/Kelce/Spags to deal with. [Reply]
When everyone zigs Veach always seems to zag. I have a hard time believing DHop was his plan A. A lot of offseaon left. When a Chiefs offense consisting of Reid/Mahomes/Kelce ranks anything other than #1 Ill start to get concerned we aren't adding more playmakers amd talent on the perimiter. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
And VM. There's no saying he'll be back to 100%. And he was their entire pass rush, apparently. He certainly made the most difference.
And then there's the fact that they lost their DC. It's a coinflip whether the new guy will be better. Probably not.
And Thornhill, Saunders, Juju, Hardman, Clark are largely replaceable quantities.
Really this about coaching. I don't doubt that Diggs and DHop would be a huge problem for our defense, if say Sean Payton or Doug Pederson were the OC. Dorsey I'm not scared of. The guy calls plays to call plays, nothing more. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's a metrics guy. He knows nothing about how to set up a defense, how to scheme guys open, how to be multiple in his attack, pacing, etc.
So yeah, DHop to BUF would be a problem, but not insurmountable. Just another tall task for Andy/Pat/Kelce/Spags to deal with.
It's also worth noting that Clark and Thornhill were replaced/upgrade already.
The Bills don't have an answer for losing Edmunds and frankly most teams that lose a guy like that wouldn't. Hilariously enough, the best replacement they could've found actually signed with US. Tranquill would've been a really nice Plan B once Edmunds signed with Chicago. [Reply]
I’m not worried about the bills but I don’t think you can overlook them if they get DHop. Im more concerned about Cincinnati. We finally got them but it took 3 OL out and a dominant defensive performance for our elite offense to barely squeak out a win. If we want to beat cincy the next 2 years our offense has to consistently prepare for a shootout. I think it’ll be tough to find enough of a defensive advantage to close that gap but I really believe with our new offense we are a passing game playmaker away from putting huge distance between us and cincy and buffalo. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
They lost Edmunds, and that's about it.
Chiefs lost Thornhill, Saunders, Juju, Hardman, Clark...we can play this all day.
The margins between these two teams will always be razor thin as long as one has Mahomes and the other has Allen.
This was true both before Von, and after Tyreek.
Bills are an aging team. Like borderline, foot on the retirement door, aging team. Von is just about done. Their two safeties are heading into the steep downhill phase. They lost a key player in Edmunds who was exceptional in pass coverage last season. White is no longer the same player. They have a fragile secondary, literally below average D Line, O Line is a major questionmark and could prove a disaster if they don't address it in the draft.
Chiefs lost nobody of significant value. And added a better tackle than what they had with Taylor, Omenihu is an upgrade to Clark, Tranquill is a big time add in the linebacker core which is arguable the most complete in the entire league, Edwards is a competent replacement to Thornhill.
You can say JuJu is a notable player whose spot needs to be filled which it will.
This team will be even scarier this year once the draft concludes and all the pieces are put together. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
I’m not worried about the bills but I don’t think you can overlook them if they get DHop. Im more concerned about Cincinnati. We finally got them but it took 3 OL out and a dominant defensive performance for our elite offense to barely squeak out a win.
I agree for the most part, but that's not telling the whole story on our side either. We were down to playing Marcus Kemp, with Mahomes on a bum ankle, and Kelce banged up too. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
It's also worth noting that Clark and Thornhill were replaced/upgrade already.
The Bills don't have an answer for losing Edmunds and frankly most teams that lose a guy like that wouldn't. Hilariously enough, the best replacement they could've found actually signed with US. Tranquill would've been a really nice Plan B once Edmunds signed with Chicago.
Just remembered that we didn't have Toney for that game last season either. He may have made the difference.
Anyway, BUF with DHop would be a real problem. But they still don't have a running game, their OL needs fixing, and they're demonstrably worse on defense, with a new DC that probably won't be any better than Frazier with the pieces he has to work with. DHop only fixes so much. [Reply]
On the flip side, we’ve beaten Denver and LAC but those are two teams in our own division our offense had real big problems. We’ve gotta take care of business in our own division too. [Reply]
