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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OK, here's a novel approach. Instead of moaning that we'll end up 5th in the AFC West and 33nd in the NFL without Hopkins, let's see what the 12 WRs we have on the roster bring between now and the end of camp.
Let's forget we have just $652K (or $1.099M) cap space, we can cut promising players to pay Hopkins. Hey, it's all or nothing, damn the torpedoes because we can't win a SB without WR1. Don't worry that the Cards haven't put him on the trading block, surely Veach will be willing to give at least 2 1st rounders and a couple of 2nds for a 31 year old WR.
This whole discussion has gone on far too long. Quit beating a dead horse, it's not happening. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
The CEH pick is the biggest issue, in that you could have had Higgins. That one is a big fuck up.
Other than that.....yeah, they prioritized the OL and T spots over weapons when they had Tyreek and Kelce in tow.
That's been shown to be plenty of weapons with some add ons.
If they hadn't taken CEH would they have taken Higgins though?
They were coming off a SB win with Hill and Watkins as the starters with Hardman just having been taken in round 2 the year before and Robinson to that point had been a solid player. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
If they hadn't taken CEH would they have taken Higgins though?
They were coming off a SB win with Hill and Watkins as the starters with Hardman just having been taken in round 2 the year before and Robinson to that point had been a solid player.
Exactly. The Higgins hand wringing is silly revisionist history that hommie hasn't stopped harping on for 2 years now.
They weren't going to draft a WR in the 1st round with Hill, Watkins and Hardman on the roster. [Reply]
Shiiiiiit.....they won't draft a 1st round WR with MVS and Sky Moore penciled in, they sure AF weren't going to draft one with Hill, Watkins and a 2nd year Hardman.
And honestly any of the draft guys will probably agree with this, Tee Higgins was not a slam dunk locked in great player. I had a ton of questions about him. [Reply]
The Chiefs have missed on several players in the draft, but all teams do. Hell, back in 2015 or whatever KC could've taken Stefon Diggs in the fifth round. There's a small pile of blue chip players KC missed out on over the years. But it wasn't really incompetence by the FO as much as it was circumstances, prioritizing needs, etc. It is what it is.
"Blue chip" is probably the wrong description. But you get what I mean. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
The Chiefs have missed on several players in the draft, but all teams do. Hell, back in 2015 or whatever KC could've taken Stefon Diggs in the fifth round. There's a small pile of blue chip players KC missed out on over the years. But it wasn't really incompetence by the FO as much as it was circumstances, prioritizing needs, etc. It is what it is.
Those ones no one should get worked up over, unless you were sitting here screaming for that dude then you can beat your chest and say you had it. But when a 5th rounder turns into Stefon Diggs everyone frankly missed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
Those ones no one should get worked up over, unless you were sitting here screaming for that dude then you can beat your chest and say you had it. But when a 5th rounder turns into Stefon Diggs everyone frankly missed.
Yeah, and I reread the scouting rep on Diggs awhile back, and it wasn't that great. He was considered potentially a good backup WR, rotational depth, lol. No one saw him coming. [Reply]
I'll admit it, I had serious questions about Higgins hands and his ability to separate. I also questioned how at times he looked like the 3rd or 4th best WR on his college team and that his QB's seem to trust the other guys ahead of him. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
When you aren't even going to give credit where it's due in regards to JuJu and MVS being perfect short term moves that helped win a SB last year, there's really no point in continuing to have this discussion...
Why would I discredit them? I applauded those moves. I praised the rebuild. I even like that we are finally getting aggressive about finding our own. But those were meant to be bandaids. And year 2 we still have more questions than answers. And the fact is that we built a defense so deep, even our backups are rock solid, while our offense is still in major flux. You can call it deprioritization, late to the game, or just not hitting our spots. But it's not even a question that reid and mahomes have done this despite our talent gaps on offense.
And that shouldn't be the crutch. They can carry an offense but they shouldn't have to. In the peak of Kelces prime, let's finally get them the stability at WR or OT they deserve. I don't want mahomes to lab rat the offense while we figure this out. A bandaid isn't going to prevent skyy and rashee from getting snaps. When (or if) skyy and rice and wanya are ready, we will elevate them. But the ho hum attitude that if it doesn't work out, mahomes or Reid will still make it work undermines their greatness. If you think they're this good with all thse offense skill gaps, we should be asking how great they will be when it finally gets addressed. [Reply]
