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 chiefzilla1501:
They absolutely have the money for it. Why do people think we don't? The cap never stopped the pats or saints from investing for years in their offense. And we're not even talking big splashes. We're talking about one single short term insurance policy. Giving $20m for the luxury of cutting a WR whenever you want to isn't the same as locking a WR to a long term deal.
And a lot of this logic is built around the idea that we need to save for 5 years from now instead of riding the Reid and Kelce primes. Our window is red hot right now.
Youre basically resting all your hopes in a WR1 who is frequently injured which means we're a heartbeat away from skyy being WR1. Yeah, no. Skyy can thrive in the slot and prove his way into WR2. If you worry about toneys health you will still find plenty of snaps for rice and a chance for skyy to work in an elevated role. You can give justyn Ross a full year to prove he can stay healthy. And mvs becomes more a role player. We have lots of potential but also a lot of HUGE question marks which can be solved by a simple bandaid so you don't have to bleed out before it gets better. Because if any of these dominoes fall.. if toney doesn't stay healthy, skyy underwhelms in an elevated role, rashee isn't NFL ready yet, the dominoes can fall very quickly.
They don’t need to save money for 5 years from now. They need to save money to give the 2nd contract nucleus guys they’ve drafted and want to keep. The chiefs have invested in the offense. Theyve got highly paid and highly drafted guys everywhere on it.
And it’s not 20 million dollars and you can cut a guy a year later. You’re taking that this year with money into next year and a guy that is likely gonna want an extension so yeah, you can’t just “cut him whenever you want”
Originally Posted by O.city:
They don’t need to save money for 5 years from now. They need to save money to give the 2nd contract nucleus guys they’ve drafted and want to keep. The chiefs have invested in the offense. Theyve got highly paid and highly drafted guys everywhere on it.
And it’s not 20 million dollars and you can cut a guy a year later. You’re taking that this year with money into next year and a guy that is likely gonna want an extension so yeah, you can’t just “cut him whenever you want”
It’s just not gonna happen.
So what youre saying is we rebuild this offense (including the risk that some of these offense players may not succeed in an elevated role) during Kelce/reids peak because we need to save up for contracts that wont hit for a few years. At a time when we have two HOFers who may not even be here in a few years, we want to build around them instead of through them?
You can absolutely bring in a bandaid on an easy to cut contract. Especially veterans who are willing to take more money up front. If Evans won't do that we've already has guys like obj, dhop... I'm sure Keenan Allen or a Corey Davis at some point. You pay for these guys by backloading guys you know will be here long term. You still have mahomes bonus money designed for this purpose. You still have Jones extension as an obvious candidate to free this up.
You don't want to abuse this by buying everything on credit. But every team has flexibility to backload. One short term bandaid isn't going to break the bank. It's the long term guys strapped to mega signing bonuses that become tougher to work around. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
So what youre saying is we rebuild this offense (including the risk that some of these offense players may not succeed in an elevated role) during Kelce/reids peak because we need to save up for contracts that wont hit for a few years. At a time when we have two HOFers who may not even be here in a few years, we want to build around them instead of through them?
You can absolutely bring in a bandaid on an easy to cut contract. Especially veterans who are willing to take more money up front. If Evans won't do that we've already has guys like obj, dhop... I'm sure Keenan Allen or a Corey Davis at some point. You pay for these guys by backloading guys you know will be here long term. You still have mahomes bonus money designed for this purpose. You still have Jones extension as an obvious candidate to free this up.
You don't want to abuse this by buying everything on credit. But every team has flexibility to backload. One short term bandaid isn't going to break the bank. It's the long term guys strapped to mega signing bonuses that become tougher to work around.
The guys you want here are going to have to be traded for and their contract either re worked or added to. So no, that won’t work. You have to have the money up front on that years cap, which we currently don’t.
Unless they get cut and wanna come here for a lot cheaper, no it won’t work.
They’ve invested a ton of resources on the offense, again, you just don’t seem to like where it’s invested. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
The guys you want here are going to have to be traded for and their contract either re worked or added to. So no, that won’t work. You have to have the money up front on that years cap, which we currently don’t.
Unless they get cut and wanna come here for a lot cheaper, no it won’t work.
They’ve invested a ton of resources on the offense, again, you just don’t seem to like where it’s invested.
That money is available overnight by Chris Jones and restructuring the rest of mahomes' base. The mahomes option is available every year. And it isn't even backloading because he's already underpaid.
It doesn't matter if we've invested in the offense. What matters is if we're set because it's a waste to squander the peak Reid/Kelce years on a rebuild. The future of this offense will likely revolve around young guys who can centerpiece the offense. But because we started that process late there's a very good chance we aren't ready for the present. Again it's not like we have to make it rain on offense. Of course it's not on fire since we won a super bowl but we're legit talking one bandaid that could single handedly erase a bunch of question marks overnight. And buy us time to experiment with these young guys to figure out what works. [Reply]
Some of us are stupid,
some of us are not.
Veach is not stupid,
some of us are.
Andy is not stupid,
some of us are.
Hunt is not stupid,
some of us are.
I am stupid, so Veach, Andy and Hunt can run the team.
My stupidity says they don't need a overpaid vet' WR, but if they decide they do,
I don't care. They have been to more Super Bowls than me.
Originally Posted by Hog Rider:
Some of us are stupid,
some of us are not.
Veach is not stupid,
some of us are.
Andy is not stupid,
some of us are.
Hunt is not stupid,
some of us are.
I am stupid, so Veach, Andy and Hunt can run the team.
My stupidity says they don't need a overpaid vet' WR, but if they decide they do,
I don't care. They have been to more Super Bowls than me.
JFWY
Remember we all flipped shit when Veach traded Peters [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
That money is available overnight by Chris Jones and restructuring the rest of mahomes' base. The mahomes option is available every year. And it isn't even backloading because he's already underpaid.
It doesn't matter if we've invested in the offense. What matters is if we're set because it's a waste to squander the peak Reid/Kelce years on a rebuild. The future of this offense will likely revolve around young guys who can centerpiece the offense. But because we started that process late there's a very good chance we aren't ready for the present. Again it's not like we have to make it rain on offense. Of course it's not on fire since we won a super bowl but we're legit talking one bandaid that could single handedly erase a bunch of question marks overnight. And buy us time to experiment with these young guys to figure out what works.
They have to have restructured Mahomes deal by a certain time. That’s not available any longer.
Squander the peak of Kelce and reid by….winning super bowls? [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
They have to have restructured Mahomes deal by a certain time. That’s not available any longer.
Squander the peak of Kelce and reid by….winning super bowls?
Didn't say we squandered it last year. But if you have question marks that go away with a single reasonable bandaid, you don't pass on that when you have two generational offense talents potentially near the end of their careers for fear of how it will affect the future cap. I don't think veach is doing that and id bet we aren't don't yet looking. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Didn't say we squandered it last year. But if you have question marks that go away with a single reasonable bandaid, you don't pass on that when you have two generational offense talents potentially near the end of their careers for fear of how it will affect the future cap. I don't think veach is doing that and id bet we aren't don't yet looking.
It’s not reasonable to trade for and pay a guy like Hopkins at this point as a bandaid.