What Can DeAndre Hopkins Bring to His New Team?
It’s hard to ignore the fact that there has been somewhat of a decline to DeAndre Hopkins’ game. This shouldn’t be entirely surprising. At 31 years old, the 10-year veteran is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning of it.
Going by Pro Football Focus grading, Hopkins’ performance has dropped each year since 2018. His Yards-After-Catch per Reception have also decreased in each of the last two years, both of which were below his career average. His effectiveness against man coverage has waned as well. In fact, the passer rating of Cardinals QBs when targeting him in man coverage ranked just 55th in 2021 and 69th in 2022 among all receivers.
Perhaps some of this is attributable to Arizona’s quarterback situation. Hopkins only played 4 of his 9 games with Kyler Murray under center in 2022 for instance.
Or maybe his dip in performance is attributable to the multiple injuries that have forced him to miss 10 games over the last two seasons. Although at 31 years old, you can’t really use injuries as an excuse. They have to be factored in when evaluating his abilities.
Regardless of this downward trend to his game, Hopkins can still add lots of value to whatever team does end up signing him. In fact, it’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t instantly make any receiving corps in the NFL better. The size of what his contract should be is certainly up for debate. What he could contribute on the field really isn’t.
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So what exactly does Hopkins offer at this point in his career? Above all else, he’s a quarterback-friendly receiver who knows how to get open. Instead of relying on elite speed to do so, he uses superb route running, savvy, and awareness. Just look at a few of these routes below.
Watch how he created separation in both examples by stepping on his defender’s toes to sell the go-route before stopping on a dime:
Here’s another example of that great route running. Watch how he attacked his defender’s inside leverage, getting him to turn his hips inside for a split second, which was just enough to give Hopkins room to the outside:
According to PFF, Cardinals quarterbacks had a 115.4 passer rating when targeting Hopkins on throws to the intermediate level last season (15th in the NFL) and an off-the charts 145.4 rating the year before (5th in the NFL). That comes as no surprise when you look at the plays above and see how well Hopkins manipulates defenders.
Against zone coverage, the results have been the same. Cardinals QBs had a 100.5 passer rating when targeting Hopkins in zone last season (29th among all receivers) and 144.4 the year before (Best in the NFL). That’s largely because he understands how to find soft spots in the coverage:
Hopkins also still has the body control and ability to catch the ball away from his frame, helping him to win on contested passes or in situations where there is little separation.
You can see him do that against Jalen Ramsey on this play:
And here he was making a 1-handed grab for a touchdown with a man draped on him:
Notice the late hands (or hand) on that catch. Hopkins snagged the ball out of the air at the last second while his defender didn’t seem to know the ball had been thrown yet. That prevented him from being able to get his hands up and knock down the pass.
Hopkins might not be as much of a downfield threat at this stage in his career, but he can still be as good as any receiver in the league within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage. And in the end, those are the types of throws that lead to consistency in the passing game. Which team in the NFL couldn’t use more of that?
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