Bills Don't Sign DeAndre Hopkins; $13 Million Too Much?
The Buffalo Bills will move on now, putting behind them the rumors, the gossip and the flirting surrounding the pursuit of All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins. But one thing, before they - and we - do so ...
If it is true that in this era of $30 million APY receivers (see Tyreek Hill), D-Hop is now signing a two-year deal with Tennessee that assures him just $26 million - meaning $13 million APY - did the Bills not ante up that much money to remain in the bidding?
There are incentives in the deal that can make it much richer, of course. (The 2022 base is $12 million, with $36 mil in incentives possible over the two seasons, per Rap Sheet.) But generally, such incentives are tied to big-time team success and postseason glory ... meaning a franchise is happy to have to pay that bill.
Hopkins is moving to the Titans after having been a cap-clearing cut by the Arizona Cardinals in May. He took visits to the Patriots and to the Titans in June ... with the Bills' interest never extending that far.
Should it have? Was the $13 million APY number something Buffalo GM Brandon Beane knew all about ... and deemed excessive for the the 31-year-old star?
Maybe the Bills can comfort themselves with the fact that Hopkins - who did an awful lot of Bills flirting all offseason - didn't move to an AFC super-contender like the Kansas City Chiefs or the Baltimore Ravens. ... or that they don't have to see him twice a year in a New England Patriots uniform.
But it is also possible that the Titans - long a worthy Bills foe - just extended their window of contention by taking advantage of Arizona's salary dump and by outfoxing the other teams in the DeAndre Derby ... all for a low, low price that somehow the Bills either didn't offer or didn't get Hopkins to take.
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