'Delusional!' DeAndre Hopkins 'Lies' from Cardinals; Trade Idea for Ravens
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PHOENIX - The Arizona Cardinals are the "home team'' for this week's NFL owners meetings here in Phoenix. But that's not why football watchers - including those representing the Baltimore Ravens - have their eye on the franchise.
Star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is on the trade block ... and new head coach head coach Jonathan Gannon's attempts to talk around that aren't changing anything.
“I’m operating that he’s a Cardinal right now,” Gannon said while appearing on NFL Network.
Gannon said some other things, too, about how he is "looking forward to getting in the meeting room and on the field with him and seeing where it can go'' and about how Hopkins is "an elite player.''
But about the player's future: Is the coach "lying''? Or at least "bluffing''?
Are Gannon and Hopkins going to be working together in 2023? One media observer labeled the coach "delusional'' for his remarks, though that is harsh - and here is why: The asking price for the veteran wide receiver, leaked out weeks ago, was "a second-round pick plus.'' Since then, the Cardinals have tried to drive a harder bargain in part by saying things like Gannon is saying here.
What is the right price for the five-time Pro Bowler? For a Ravens team that has its hands full in trying to solve its contractual conflict with QB Lamar Jackson, that might be a problem.
But Hopkins on the field teamed with Jackson? Strictly from a football perspective, that might be a problem ... for Ravens opponents.
We've seen it suggested that Baltimore should offer a first-round pick. We see a need for a Hopkins-level receiver here (as Ravens fans have said for years) but the team also needs to "win the trade.''
And when the going rate was a second-round pick, a Ravens should come in under that, not over it.
The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs are among those who might be trying to get in on the Hopkins sweepstakes. But if they were willing to overpay, "Nuk'' would already be in Buffalo or K.C. No, this is a game of Chicken. Gannon and the Cardinals almost must do something before the late April NFL Draft.
And the owners meetings here in Arizona offer the Ravens a chance to look the Cardinals eye-to-eye ... and to call that bluff.
