Cardinals Release WR DeAndre Hopkins [Titans, 2yr/$26 million]

[Dante84]

Interesting

Cardinals released DeAndre Hopkins. pic.twitter.com/c0f9UaabYA

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 26, 2023

[Kiimo]

Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger

25 td's and 8 ints is sky rocketing?

As a Trevor Lawrence in dynasty owner I can promise you that first half of the season Lawrence and second half were way different. He's definitely on the rise.

Adding Calvin Ridley is also going to be a huge thing, that guy is going to be on a holy mission like a freaking crusade.

The question is their offensive line.

That being said I think the Giants adding Hyatt is pretty interesting too but the Jags are way better

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger

Both of them lost to the teams who played in the SB so what really is the difference? Jared Goff took teams on playoff runs so I still need to see more from Lawrence tbh.

Well of course we need to see more. Lawrence actually started to look like the guy he was supposed to be with actual NFL coaching.

[Rainbarrel]

Originally Posted by chiefs1111

Invite Hopkins to the George Brett Statue and make him an offer he can't refuse

He's old, slow, expensive, on the roids, is connected to losers who had QBs that where winning at one time. Is a diva, loves to listen to Brooke Proyer's takes & is to fat himself. Is against the Chop, favors gun control, hates dogs and big butts. Now that he won't be a Chief

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

We just won a SB. It’ll be fine however. I’m less convinced than you are that our WR room is fine and enough to win a SB, but it comes down more to Mahomes playing at an MVP level than anything else. And perhaps we’re just gonna survive doing that again.

Well, what is Mahomes's "mean"? I mean, it's pretty much MVP level play for anyone else. At this point, he's seen everything there is to see. There's no silver bullet defense. He's just different than anyone else. I don't see any big drop off regression.

It's a young WR room, but I trust Veach and I trust this staff. If ONE of the young trio hit, we're good. If TWO hit we're gold. If all THREE hit, this is the best team anyone has ever seen as I'm pretty bullish on this defense.

[warpaint*]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

Believe what you want or not, but I spoke to someone in-the-know tonight who told me that Veach said it’s not happening unless he’s signing for something ultra-reasonable. So cross this one off the list because it’s not close.

I think that this is accurate.

Someone will pony up like the Ravens did for OBJ.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by staylor26

I just don't get this at all.

We essentially lost JuJu. Hardman didn't even play for like the 2nd half of the season.

There's a lot of young talent in that room now. We don't even need them all to hit this year, just a couple and we're absolutely golden. I really don't get why people don't think that will happen with this coaching staff and in particular Andy/Pat.

Richie James is sneaky good depth as well. Worst case scenario, he can give you 75% of what JuJu did.

I totally understand wanting Hopkins, but I don't understand why people seem to be more pessimistic about the WR room than last year's group.

its not pessimism as much as it is realism that this WR room wont be figured out overnight. It will take a full season if not more. Some young guys will fail, some will do well, and some will show promise but also rough patches along the way. .

During that time we’re asking mahomes to participate in a science experiment. Constantly changing wr rotations, stretches of games where we use the wrong WRs which means they won’t get open or they’ll frustrate mahomes by missing their spots. All while carrying substantial injury risk which creates more chaos especially if toney gets hurt.

And it doesn’t have to be that way. A stable WR1 puts toney in the slot on a snap count and reduces risk that toney gets hurt and forced skyy to be WR1. It means easing rashee in which is realistic in a Reid offense. It means giving Justyn a year to prove his body can take a full year of practice let alone contact. most importantly it gives mahomes stability to have a rock in kelce and WR1 while all the chaos underneath gets sorted out. Mahomes is a great teammate but as an example, if our wr room is still chaotic by the time we play Miami, do we think that won’t sting mahomes when tyreek gloats about how much we needed him? Do we think fans will be nearly this casual about experimenting when we ultimately play Philly, cincy, buffalo in games we need to be at our very best and critics are finding any small slip up as an excuse to knock mahomes down?

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Kiimosabi

As a Trevor Lawrence in dynasty owner I can promise you that first half of the season Lawrence and second half were way different. He's definitely on the rise.

Adding Calvin Ridley is also going to be a huge thing, that guy is going to be on a holy mission like a freaking crusade.

The question is their offensive line.

That being said I think the Giants adding Hyatt is pretty interesting too but the Jags are way better

Yep.

Also, looking at their respective schedules, JAX may only lose 4 games. NYG will almost definitely lose 6. JAX will win their Division, NYG’s only path is to get in as a WC.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Brown is the 1, Hopkins would be the 2, smith would be a natural in the slot. Or Flip smith and Hopkins. Not that hard.

That sounds good on paper. Until Smith gets his receptions and yards get cut by half and his 2nd contract numbers start getting smaller and smaller.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by Couch-Potato

So you're looking for your next job, do you take less money to win the Marketing Firm of the year award, or whatever? When fans think players should take millions less to play for their team I cringe. Let's just pay the man. He IS worth more than OBJ.

No Thanks... that's what bad franchises do, overpay for aging vets. Maybe a one year deal that's $15 mil with incentives, if you can restructure some folks. However, it's a big no to a long term expensive deal. That really hurts us with some players needing to be extended next year.

Also, If you made over $111 million dollars at marketing firms over your career, but you had an opportunity to make $7 million instead of $15 million next year, by going to a firm that had a chance to be in an elite member by winning the industries most prestigious award and position yourself as a shoe-in for the Marketing hall of fame. Hopkins current situation is way different than a marketing execs....

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

its not pessimism as much as it is realism that this WR room wont be figured out overnight. It will take a full season if not more. Some young guys will fail, some will do well, and some will show promise but also rough patches along the way. .

During that time we’re asking mahomes to participate in a science experiment. Constantly changing wr rotations, stretches of games where we use the wrong WRs which means they won’t get open or they’ll frustrate mahomes by missing their spots. All while carrying substantial injury risk which creates more chaos especially if toney gets hurt.

And it doesn’t have to be that way. A stable WR1 puts toney in the slot on a snap count and reduces risk that toney gets hurt and forced skyy to be WR1. It means easing rashee in which is realistic in a Reid offense. It means giving Justyn a year to prove his body can take a full year of practice let alone contact. most importantly it gives mahomes stability to have a rock in kelce and WR1 while all the chaos underneath gets sorted out. Mahomes is a great teammate but as an example, if our wr room is still chaotic by the time we play Miami, do we think that won’t sting mahomes when tyreek gloats about how much we needed him? Do we think fans will be nearly this casual about experimenting when we ultimately play Philly, cincy, buffalo in games we need to be at our very best and critics are finding any small slip up as an excuse to knock mahomes down?

What? No. Why in world do you think they're going to be in chaos? They had 4 of these guys last year. This isn't being realistic, it's being paranoid. It's a worse case scenario that is dependent on a big stretch in logic requiring the coaching staff to be stupid. Which I don't think they are.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by -King-

That sounds good on paper. Until Smith gets his receptions and yards get cut by half and his 2nd contract numbers start getting smaller and smaller.

Maybe. Doesn’t have to be. There’s more than 100 targets between Q. Watkins, Gainwell, Stoll, Calcaterra and Pascal. Cut into their targets instead. Basically throw more passes to legit receivers and a lot less to backups and RBs. I’m sure both the OC and Hurts wouldn’t have a problem with that.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

What? No. Why in world do you think they're going to be in chaos? They had 4 of these guys last year. This isn't being realistic, it's being paranoid. It's a worse case scenario that is dependent on a big stretch in logic requiring the coaching staff to be stupid. Which I don't think they are.

That is a rosy view of how quickly and easily this will happen. It is not stupid for the coaching staff to experiment with what WR fits in what spot. Spags spends the entire year figuring this out for his defense. That meant making a lot of bad rotations, playing the wrong guys, relying on guys he shouldn’t have. That doesn’t make him stupid. And so much of our WR stability depends on Toney thriving as WR1 and, more importantly, staying healthy and taking a full snap load.

They had 4 of these guys last year. Watson and Mvs are role guys. Toney is an injury risk. Skyy is unproven which I love for experimenting at WR2 but given toneys past could be forced to take on WR1 in stretches. All the while we’re talking about rice and Ross and James as if they’ll all just easily plug and play. If we lose Toney early in the season I don’t think I’m alone in saying that makes our WR room very concerning. There is even quite a bit of uncertainty even if he’s healthy. And not because these guys suck but because it will be way too early to know what we have or for some of these guys to step into these roles naturally.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

That is a rosy view of how quickly and easily this will happen. It is not stupid for the coaching staff to experiment with what WR fits in what spot. Spags spends the entire year figuring this out for his defense. That meant making a lot of bad rotations, playing the wrong guys, relying on guys he shouldn’t have. That doesn’t make him stupid. And so much of our WR stability depends on Toney thriving as WR1 and, more importantly, staying healthy and taking a full snap load.

They had 4 of these guys last year. Watson and Mvs are role guys. Toney is an injury risk. Skyy is unproven which I love for experimenting at WR2 but given toneys past could be forced to take on WR1 in stretches. All the while we’re talking about rice and Ross and James as if they’ll all just easily plug and play. If we lose Toney early in the season I don’t think I’m alone in saying that makes our WR room very concerning. There is even quite a bit of uncertainty even if he’s healthy. And not because these guys suck but because it will be way too early to know what we have or for some of these guys to step into these roles naturally.

Spags had 6 ****ing rookies in his top 12 guys. That's a HUGE difference.

Andy has ONE this year, and 4 guys that have a year in the system. It's not remotely comparable. They already know what everyone but Rice can do.

And I disagree that EVERYTHING hinges on Toney staying healthy. Everything hinges on Mahomes staying healthy. Anything and everything else is workable.

Juju was solid for us last year, but totally unspectacular. There's no reason to expect any great drop-off. Hardman was out half the year. We're not missing some great all-pro guys or anything.

It's entirely reasonable to expect the guys in the second year of their careers and all of the guys in their second year in this system to all pick up the slack. It's a DEEP room, so say all who are actually involved, and it's going to be fine.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

That is a rosy view of how quickly and easily this will happen. It is not stupid for the coaching staff to experiment with what WR fits in what spot. Spags spends the entire year figuring this out for his defense. That meant making a lot of bad rotations, playing the wrong guys, relying on guys he shouldn’t have. That doesn’t make him stupid. And so much of our WR stability depends on Toney thriving as WR1 and, more importantly, staying healthy and taking a full snap load.

They had 4 of these guys last year. Watson and Mvs are role guys. Toney is an injury risk. Skyy is unproven which I love for experimenting at WR2 but given toneys past could be forced to take on WR1 in stretches. All the while we’re talking about rice and Ross and James as if they’ll all just easily plug and play. If we lose Toney early in the season I don’t think I’m alone in saying that makes our WR room very concerning. There is even quite a bit of uncertainty even if he’s healthy. And not because these guys suck but because it will be way too early to know what we have or for some of these guys to step into these roles naturally.

Pretty much nailed it.

Theres a real and steep learning curve in Andy’s offense. Every receiver needs to be able to operate from every position in every play. You can see why when the playcalls are 25-30 words long.

It might be an 11P formation, but where everyone lines up, what their route might be, blocking assignments; audible mods, etc. change every time. Andy literally never calls the same play in a game. And his play sheet is the largest n the business by about 75+ plays per game.


It’s likely these young unproven WRs will have brain farts here and there initially, just as Skyy did last season. Maybe even more than one player on the same play, the if we’re going to put Rice/Justyn/Skyy or any combination of new/young receivers out there at the same time. Just as our young defensive players last season had ups and downs, so will our new/young receivers.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Pretty much nailed it.

Theres a real and steep learning curve in Andy’s offense. Every receiver needs to be able to operate from every position in every play. You can see why when the playcalls are 25-30 words long.

It might be an 11P formation, but where everyone lines up, what their route might be, blocking assignments; audible mods, etc. change every time. Andy literally never calls the same play in a game. And his play sheet is the largest n the business by about 75+ plays per game.


It’s likely these young unproven WRs will have brain farts here and there initially, just as Skyy did last season. Maybe even more than one player on the same play, the if we’re going to put Rice/Justyn/Skyy or any combination of new/young receivers out there at the same time. Just as our young defensive players last season had ups and downs, so will our new/young receivers.

You'd have a legit argument if these were all first year guys, and not that four of them are now in year two of this offense. There will be LESS confusion for all in your top 5 guys other than Rice than last year, with absolutely no legitimate reason to think otherwise besides general pessimism or pining for Deandre Hopkins.