It’s officially official, veteran wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will now be playing with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hopkins isn’t the five-time Pro Bowler he once was (four times with the Houston Texans and once with the Arizona Cardinals), but the Chiefs traded for him for a reason. Sure, they’re decimated with injury, specifically at the wide receiver position, but Andy Reid and company are certainly hoping he’s going to be more than just a “warm body” out there.
They brought in Hopkins to be one of Mahomes’ top targets alongside rookie sensation Xavier Worthy.
Doubters will say that the 32-year-old wideout is over the hill and won’t provide much juice for the Chiefs’ offense, but here are three reasons why D-Hop will prove those naysayers wrong.
Patrick Mahomes is best quarterback DeAndre Hopkins has ever played with
Let’s get this out of the way. Mahomes, 29, is a future Hall of Famer who already has three Super Bowl wins to his name. That’s more than Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre combined, and we all know the Lombardi Trophy is the ultimate hardware that matters for quarterbacks.
Hopkins was a superstar with the Texans, but it wasn’t like he had a ton of help on the other side of the transaction. He played with 11 starting quarterbacks in seven seasons: Matt Schaub, Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mallett, Bryan Hoyer, T.J. Yates, Brandon Weeden, Brock Osweiler, Tom Savage, Deshaun Watson and A.J. McCarron.
Outside of Watson, none of those quarterbacks were stars.
He caught passes from Kyler Murray with the Cardinals, but even Murray can’t hold a candle to Mahomes.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Hopkins.
Chiefs have superstar play-caller in Andy Reid
Andy Reid is an offensive genius. There’s no doubt about it. He’s been able to do more with less than just about any play-caller in the league, but you give him players like Mahomes and Kelce and the results speak for themselves. The man known as “big red” has completely rejuvenated football in Kansas City and he’s a real threat to continue adding more trophies to their case.
There’s a strong case to be made that Hopkins is the best wideout Reid has had to work with since Tyreek Hill. No, Hopkins no longer has Hill-type speed but he’s still a tremendous route runner and few wideouts in NFL history have been able to use their size to their advantage like Hopkins has.
Combine Hopkins’ veteran skillset with Reid’s ability to scheme players open and we could be in store for some major fireworks.
DeAndre Hopkins will be motivated to win Super Bowl
Hopkins is absolutely a Hall of Fame receiver once he decides to hang them up.
He has 12,528 receiving yards in his career which make him the NFL’s active leading receiver. He also has 79 career touchdowns.
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Hopkins is one of the best we’ve seen do it, but he’s really never had a true chance at winning a Super Bowl. That’s the one goal that has eluded him in his career, but now he’s on a team that has made the NFL’s biggest stage in four of the last five seasons and they’ve won it three times, including two straight.
The Chiefs are a realistic candidate to become the first team in NFL history to pull off a Super Bowl three-peat, and now Hopkins has the opportunity to be a part of that legacy.
We know, at the very least, that Mahomes is chomping at the bit to add a three-peat to his legacy, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.
“It [would be] legendary,” Mahomes said of the opportunity to three-peat after the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII. “No one’s ever done it, and we knew it’s legendary to win back-to-back. I think eight other teams have done it. We had heard it all week. We had talked to the guys [who had gone back-to-back] about it, and we felt like we had the best opportunity that we had ever had to go out there and do that.
“We’ve got to continue to play our best football. We’ll celebrate these next few weeks, and then we’ll get right back at it.”
The Chiefs have certainly gotten back after it. No, they haven’t been perfect, and Mahomes is personally struggling statistically, but they have the heart of a champion and despite facing multiple roadblocks, they just keep winning. Whether it’s pretty or ugly, a win is a win in the NFL, and the Chiefs are still undefeated.
From the 1-5 Titans to the 6-0 Chiefs, Hopkins is going to be super motivated to win it all, and his play will reflect that.