DeAndre Hopkins is a Free Agent; Does He Make Sense for Browns?
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The Arizona Cardinals opted to release wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins ahead of Memorial Day Weekend, which makes him a free agent able to sign with anyone. The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills immediately stand out as fits, but might the best place for him be with the Cleveland Browns where he can reunite with Deshaun Watson, the quarterback he had with the Houston Texans?
The Cardinals decision to release Hopkins now has everything to do with the calendar. Yes, the Cardinals would’ve liked to have gotten something for him and had they held onto him, they could have. The problem for the Cardinals is that while they plan to be awful this year, they don’t want to be next year. And had they waited until June, any dead money on Hopkins’ deal would’ve carried over into 2024.
The Cardinals are engineering their roster to lose as much as possible this coming season whether they want to admit it or not. They tore their roster down to the studs, traded to acquire as much extra draft capital for 2024 as possible and have done little to add to their roster in free agency.
They want to be in position to draft either Caleb Williams or USC or Drake May from North Carolina, the top two quarterbacks projected to be available. Both were more highly regarded than any quarterback selected in the 2023 class. They look like franchise changing prospects.
The Cardinals also have a number of the Houston Texans picks. There is a dream where they finish with the 1st and 2nd pick and potentially take a quarterback, then mortgage off the other pick for as many draft assets as possible before surrounding their quarterback with talent both through the draft and free agency.
So the Cardinals get worse by cutting bait with Hopkins. Additionally, they eat all of the dead cap now freeing it up for next year when they want to be able to sign players. Now Hopkins can decide where he wants to go.
Does it make sense for the Browns? The answer is no. Taking money out of the conversation, it’s interesting but still not really logical.
The Browns have Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones coming off strong seasons. They traded for Elijah Moore from the New York Jets with every intention of playing him. Add in David Bell, a third round pick from last year and Cedric Tillman, a third round pick this year and that’s already five receivers.
In theory, they could add Hopkins to get to six. They could run four receiver sets more often, allowing them to put Cooper, DPJ, Moore and Hopkins on the field at the same time. But they still have David Njoku at tight end who they want to be a big factor in their offense. At that point, the Browns find themselves in awkward position. Do they then take DPJ off the field to get Hopkins on it?
They could and potentially get better production, but there is a locker room element there the Browns likely don’t want to touch. DPJ is a homegrown talent who has a reputation of being a team guy and doing everything the right way. He’s improved every year he’s been in the league. It might not quite be a slap in the face, but it wouldn’t send a great message for DPJ to be demoted because they could rent Hopkins for a year.
Even with ways to manipulate the salary cap, Hopkins isn’t going to be free and the Browns almost certainly don’t want to get in a bidding war. Especially when both the Chiefs and Bills have a role Hopkins could step in and play.
He’d immediately be the Chiefs best outside threat. It’s pretty remarkable the Chiefs were able to win the Super Bowl with their passing game operating almost entirely in the middle of the field. Travis Kelce is still unstoppable in that area of the field and then Juju Smith-Schuster played largely out of the slot. They didn’t get much on the boundary so Hopkins could be a massive boost.
The Bills have their top receiver in Stephon Diggs. They would like to get a stronger second receiver. Gabe Davis is a talented receiver, but he’s not quite at the level of DPJ. He would benefit from being able to be the third receiver in that offense. Hopkins could step in there and give Allen another dependable target to move the chains, an issue that hurt the Bills in tight games and the postseason.
There are some other teams that could make a play for Hopkins which only provide more reason for the Browns to stay away. Besides, plenty of critics have complained the Browns aren’t fast enough at wide receiver and Hopkins would be the slowest receiver on this team outside of David Bell.
Hopkins sounds good in theory, but has never made much sense in reality.