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:
Let me ask you this and play devils advocate. If Taylor is indeed our left tackle of the future and we draft a true right tackle in the draft (for shits and giggles lets say Darnell Wright or Dawand Jones) what happens if Taylor goes down with an injury? Not great...likely Niang or Thuney at LT?
What happened if OBJ went down? Or Fisher? Do you think this team doesn’t have a plan if Taylor goes down at LT? [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
I think all teams think like this more than you care to admit. The Chiefs purposefully took a DE and corner in the first rd bc of the value of the position and also bc, well…Okafor sucked, Clark was old and declined, Ingram was gone and the corner position was a disaster at that point minus Sneed (they lost Ward).
They traded up for McDuffie. They took him because they had targeted him from the beginning. They absolutely took him because of his positional value.
Karlaftis was more of a need pick but even then, I'll give you that one.
But the bottom line here is that you're comparing a draft where we had TWO first round picks to this year's, when we only have 1.
That changes the 1st round strategy completely. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ForeverIowan:
Let me ask you this and play devils advocate. If Taylor is indeed our left tackle of the future and we draft a true right tackle in the draft (for shits and giggles lets say Darnell Wright or Dawand Jones) what happens if Taylor goes down with an injury? Not great...likely Niang or Thuney at LT?
Franchise beat me to it.
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
What happened if OBJ went down? Or Fisher? Do you think this team doesn’t have a plan if Taylor goes down at LT?
Originally Posted by RunKC:
I think all teams think like this more than you care to admit. The Chiefs purposefully took a DE and corner in the first rd bc of the value of the position and also bc, well…Okafor sucked, Clark was old and declined, Ingram was gone and the corner position was a disaster at that point minus Sneed (they lost Ward).
Tackle is absolutely a premier needed position that can’t be understated with a brokedick Niang.
The Chiefs don’t win the SB vs SF if Brown Jr and Wylie are their bookends. Those two would get embarrassed. We saw the Bucs SB and how important the OL is. We got lucky that the field was so terrible it basically neutralized both the Eagles and Chiefs pass rushes.
You’re gonna face an elite pass rush in the SB. It’s bound to happen
Very good point.
The Chiefs entered last years draft with DE being an even more glaring need than RT presently is.
It's absolutely something we've done before and could easily be doing again (while just putting the Niang confidence out there as a smokescreen). And when they let Ward walk before the draft last year, they made CB a need going into that draft as well. The only question was how MUCH of a need (i.e. how much faith did they truly have in Fenton stepping into a starting role).
Turns out that they didn't have much confidence at all, as evidenced by the slew of DBs they took in that draft.
The idea that teams don't draft for need is a great - absolutely ideal, in fact - philosophy. But it doesn't often work out that way. And it's gonna work out that way even less often going forward with Mahomes contract on the books.
We're gonna be making need picks for the foreseeable future here and there. It's just the brave new world we live in now that we have the baddest man on the planet under contract for a decade.
There are worse places to find ourselves... [Reply]
Originally Posted by ForeverIowan:
Let me ask you this and play devils advocate. If Taylor is indeed our left tackle of the future and we draft a true right tackle in the draft (for shits and giggles lets say Darnell Wright or Dawand Jones) what happens if Taylor goes down with an injury? Not great...likely Niang or Thuney at LT?
What happens if we draft an LT in the first round and HE goes down with an injury?
What the fuck are you even talking about at this point? [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Very good point.
The Chiefs entered last years draft with DE being an even more glaring need than RT presently is.
It's absolutely something we've done before and could easily be doing again (while just putting the Niang confidence out there as a smokescreen). And when they let Ward walk before the draft last year, they made CB a need going into that draft as well. The only question was how MUCH of a need (i.e. how much faith did they truly have in Fenton stepping into a starting role).
Turns out that they didn't have much confidence at all, as evidenced by the slew of DBs they took in that draft.
The idea that teams don't draft for need is a great - absolutely ideal, in fact - philosophy. But it doesn't often work out that way. And it's gonna work out that way even less often going forward with Mahomes contract on the books.
We're gonna be making need picks for the foreseeable future here and there. It's just the brave new world we live in now that we have the baddest man on the planet under contract for a decade.
Originally Posted by ForeverIowan:
Let me ask you this and play devils advocate. If Taylor is indeed our left tackle of the future and we draft a true right tackle in the draft (for shits and giggles lets say Darnell Wright or Dawand Jones) what happens if Taylor goes down with an injury? Not great...likely Niang or Thuney at LT?
Honestly I don't know. But roster-wise, we have two guys already that have shown at least some ability to play RT in Niang and Prince. Not so much at LT. Like very little ability. maybe one of those guys comes into preseason and shows some better ability. But you want Taylor at RT, so we now have three RTs.
But there's no one on the roster to play LT if we assign Taylor to RT1. Which would require that Veach has to draft a functional LT, that has zero NFL experience. That will not be the best-in-class because we can't trade up that far. And then we have to go to Wal-Mart and buy a 'cheap swing OT' off the shelf. At the very least.
Again, I'm not Veach, but this doesn't sound like the best possible plan.
Put another way, of the OTs we now have on the roster, which is the best overall?
I'm pretty sure it's Taylor. And I'm no football wizard, but I'm pretty sure that 100% of the time you put your best OT at LT. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
Eh, trade for Hopkins or sign OBJ and you could certainly argue that RT is the bigger need.
Ehhh maybe. We literally have Karlaftis and Omenihu…and that’s pretty much it. Sure they could bring in another veteran (and they probably will) but we don’t have much there.
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
Ehhh maybe. We literally have Karlaftis and Omenihu…and that’s pretty much it. Sure they could bring in another veteran (and they probably will) but we don’t have much there.
Nobody is saying teams don't draft for need. Of course they do and quite often, in fact.
The question is whether or not, when balancing need, player, and positional value, you're giving overwhelming weight to just one aspect of the draft (need) and forsaking the others.
Like you said, "The Chiefs entered last years draft with DE being an even more glaring need than RT presently is."
One, there are going to be guys in the draft that fill bigger needs than RT. There are also going to be guys that have more player or positional value. In fact, at the end of the first, even though there's no guarantees in the draft, you have at least a chance of getting a guy that satisfies all 3.
I'm not saying RT isn't a need. I could totally see them doing it. I just don't want them to do it in the 1st. The only way you could justify drafting a RT first is if you value need greatly over value. I just don't see the Chiefs doing that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
What happens if we draft an LT in the first round and HE goes down with an injury?
What the **** are you even talking about at this point?
What the F are you talking about DF? I was discussing a simple scenario with Megatron regarding injury scenario if we draft a LT vs RT. See your fat ass out of the conversation if you can't follow a simple two msg exchange [Reply]