Jets Reportedly Interested in Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins
We're two weeks away from the 2023 NFL Draft, and the Arizona Cardinals still have a few things to figure out.
Will they stay at No. 3 and take Will Anderson? Will they move back into the draft and acquire more picks? Where is a good spot for them to land? What's an acceptable package to move back for?
Certainly conversations and ideas have been bouncing off the walls at the team facility in Tempe, with decisionmakers such as general manager Monti Ossenfort and head coach Jonathan Gannon ready to get this rebuild in the right direction.
However, there's still one issue that will need to be settled sooner rather than later: DeAndre Hopkins.
The team has put Hopkins for sale since the early stages of the offseason, and though there's been heavy interest for the superstar receiver, teams have been reluctant to take on Arizona's asking price (reportedly a second-round pick and something else of value) with Hopkins' age and contract being so prominent.
Thus we've been stuck at a standstill. Teams around the league know Arizona really doesn't want to enter 2023 with Hopkins on the roster, and there's hope that the asking price will plummet or he'll eventually be released.
Hopkins' market perhaps changed slightly after Odell Beckham Jr. signed with the Baltimore Ravens, and one team who was in on OBJ is also reportedly in on Hopkins.
Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer offered this on the potential of Hopkins joining the New York Jets in his recent mailbag.
"I’d say yes, conditionally. That is, I think the Jets are going to do everything they can to go all in around Aaron Rodgers the way, say, the Buccaneers went all in around Tom Brady over the past three years, but they’ll try and do it with some intelligent restraint, as Tampa Bay did. The Odell Beckham Jr. case is a good one with which to illustrate that. The Jets were absolutely in on OBJ. They just weren’t in on him at $15 million for a single year.
"DeAndre Hopkins is due $15.09 million in cash this year, and $19.45 million in cash next year. He’s five months older than Beckham and he, like Beckham, has a lot of miles on his legs and a significant injury history, and it’s been a few years since he played a full season. So I get why they’d balk at paying Beckham $15 million for a year, and that’s exactly where Hopkins’s price tag is for 2022.
"That said … at some point, if you get to a suitable price point, and if you’re pursuing a guy who can draw coverage open for Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, Corey Davis, Breece Hall and the rest of them, then it’s worth taking the swing. So if the Jets can get Hopkins to work with them on the money, I could certainly see this happening."
That's been Arizona's justification for their asking price: They know damn well what Hopkins can do for an offense, and exactly how much better they'll get upon his arrival.
Other potential teams to watch are the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Giants and Carolina Panthers.
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