After Deandre Hopkins was one of the most talked about players on the trade market, it now appears that the veteran wide receiver may end up sticking with the Arizona Cardinals to begin the season.
In a recent post on his Instagram, Hopkins posted a video saying, “I see everybody telling me to stay. Who said I wanna go? Who wanna leave here”. The post had a location tag on it for Phoenix Arizona, heavily hinting that he will remain a member of the Arizona Cardinals.
This is a very puzzling move for two major reasons, the first being that Hopkins was tied to so many teams leading up to the draft, and it appears that the Cardinals will be one of the worst-performing teams in the league, in no need of an aging receiver on a big deal.
Leading up to the draft, Hopkins was tied to the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, and Buffalo Bills. All three of these teams would put Hopkins in a much better position to contend for a ring than Arizona would in the near future.
The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions, and Hopkins would come in and be their top receiver. Along with this, he would be the number one target for the best quarterback in the NFL. This sounds like a dream situation for any veteran receiver, especially one that still has not been on a Super Bowl-winning team. If he would have been traded to the Chiefs, there is even a chance that he could have had career numbers despite being 30 years old.
Before the Baltimore Ravens drafted Zay Flowers and re-signed Lamar Jackson, it appeared that they were in the running to make a deal for Hopkins. It was seen that he would be the cherry on top to convince Jackson to sign with the team. However, now that he has staked his claim in Arizona and Jackson is signed to a long-term deal, it appears that that ship has sailed.
The final and arguably the team that was linked to Hopkins the strongest was the Buffalo Bills. At one point it appeared that this was a done deal as veteran edge rusher Von Miller was quoted as saying, “I talk to him all the time, Hop said he wanted to be a Buffalo Bill”. This would have given Josh Allen a receiving core that was headed by Stefon Diggs and D Hop. The duo of Diggs and Hopkins arguably would have been the best in the league and could have even been enough to push them over the hump to make their first Super Bowl appearance in the Josh Allen era.
Currently in Arizona, Hopkins will obviously be the number one receiver, however, his starting quarterback will miss a big chunk of the season. After suffering an ACL tear in December, Murray is projected to return at midseason in 2023. With the Cardinals being forced to start Colt McCoy, they may be in a position where it would be in the best interest of the organization to let Murray take his time to be fully healthy before he returns to embrace the tank.
With Murray being sidelined, the Cardinals are currently projected to finish as the worst team in the league in the 2023 season. It is clear that they are entering a retooling era to bring in some young weapons to surround Murray. With the Cardinals and Texans first-round picks in the 2024 draft, they will be in a great situation to do this, however, a veteran receiver like Hopkins does not fit into that plan at all.
