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 ForeverIowan:
Eschew the strategy?? NFL GMs hope and pray they have consecutive successful drafts to put themselves in position to go out there and acquire future HOF players. Lets not act like if the ball bounces the other way in the Cincy games 2022 and 2023 we win the SB with Tyreek in 2022 and lose the AFCCG in 2023. If one play goes the other way in each game everyone would be pounding the table claiming we need a superstar receiver to push us over the edge again.
Many on here forget that you don't get a prize for additional cap space, the cap is just a means to an end.
What you want to do is not pay mediocre players so you can afford difference makers. [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
And what money are you using to pay for JuJu and Hopkins at the same time? We’re currently over the cap.
That’s where I look at Frank Clark’s contract or maybe create over $25 million in cap space by converting Mahomes’ contract into a signing bonus. We have options, let Veach work. It’s definitely not “wishful thinking”. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
Pick 63 WAS Creed Humphrey. You'd swap him for DHop?
Of course not. But let's be realistic here. Not every year is pick 63 gonna be Creed Humphrey. Just like not every year pick 32 is going to be CEH or 46 is going to be Breeland Speaks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Veach is bad or anything. I'm just saying that the last couple of years are statisical outliers right now. He's had some bad picks. His AVERAGE year is not going to be hitting on 6 of 8 picks or stuff like that.
Again, the good thing is that Veach isn't locked in to any one strategy. The year we traded a first for OBJ, we got Bolton and Creed. It's possible to do both and WIN both. [Reply]
Send MVS with a pick to the Cards for Hopkins....Saves $7M in Cap
Then don't resign JuJu....Saves what about $15M?
According to OTC, Hopkins Cap hit to the team trading for him would be $19.45M.
This means that having Hopkins would be cheaper than having both MVS and JuJu.
You've built your entire offseason wish list on getting rid of every player you don't want.
MVS will be back. So will OBJ. Sure, they could still do a Hopkins deal even with those but the scenarios you're throwing out only exist in Madden. [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
And what money are you using to pay for JuJu and Hopkins at the same time? We’re currently over the cap.
And? Everyone knows that Veach will make some moves and presto! we'll have some workable cap space. I saw one hypothesis last week that described an option that would create about $20M in cap space.
And didn't Veach find a way to extend CJ, Travis and I think Frank or whoever, when we literally had $77 in cap space the week before?
I mean, Veach has been talking about keeping OBJ, extending CJ and somehow keeping Frank (something I still highly doubt, but whatever), and still having room to make some moves in FA.
Not sure why anyone's worried about the cap at this point. Obviously Veach isn't. [Reply]
I also think that Reid really likes to have as many stud WRs as he possibly can.
Philly he had Owens, DeSean and Maclin.
In KC he started with Bowe then went after Maclin and then hit a home run with Hill but still brought in Sammy Watkins to pair with the two pro bowlers in Hill and Kelce.
I think this past year was a year Veach and Reid crossed their fingers and hoped for the best(almost crapping themself in the championship game). I think both still want a star at WR just not $30M worth a star like Hill.
I Could very easily see them going after Hopkins or even OBJ/Michael Thomas to try and get that stud WR at a better cost than Hill. [Reply]
Originally Posted by In58men:
We have options, let Veach work.
I agree with this. Let Veach work.
That being said, you need to be somewhat realistic in your expectations. People are acting like we should get rid of Juju, Clark, MVS, AND OBJ and turn that into Hopkins.
Welp, I just realized that his no-trade clause was voided by the PED suspension. My whole premise for coming to KC was mostly founded on the idea that he wouldn't allow himself to be traded to a bad team, and would want to go ring-hunting. Never mind. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
And? Everyone knows that Veach will make some moves and presto! we'll have some workable cap space. I saw one hypothesis last week that described an option that would create about $20M in cap space.
And didn't Veach find a way to extend CJ, Travis and I think Frank or whoever, when we literally had $77 in cap space the week before?
I mean, Veach has been talking about keeping OBJ, extending CJ and somehow keeping Frank (something I still highly doubt, but whatever), and still having room to make some moves in FA.
Not sure why anyone's worried about the cap at this point. Obviously Veach isn't.
The bottom line is that this is true.
The cap really shouldn't be a concern. If they want to keep all these guys AND go out and get a guy like Hopkins, they'll figure out a way to do it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Lol Ya'll been trying to cut MVS all season. No idea why. It doesn't make any sense.
It never did. The dude does exactly what this offense needs him to do and while there were a lot of growing pains, he showed what he could do when needed, particularly in the AFCCG.
Not every player is going to be a star. You have to have solid role players and MVS is absolutely one of them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It never did. The dude does exactly what this offense needs him to do and while there were a lot of growing pains, he showed what he could do when needed, particularly in the AFCCG.
Not every player is going to be a star. You have to have solid role players and MVS is absolutely one of them.
This. Took me a while to see it, but now i fully understand why MVS is important to the offense. So I was never in favor of cutting MVS after that realization. But his deal could be reworked; in the scenario I saw, his deal could be restructured to only be a $4-$5M hit in 2023. Basically cut his hit in half. [Reply]