DeAndre Hopkins Rumors: Execs Discuss WR’s Contract Value amid Titans, Patriots Buzz | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

A few NFL executives posited some guesses to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated regarding how much money free-agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins may get this offseason.

“I hit up a couple of team execs Sunday to try to get a value on him. One said that if he were a free agent in March, he’d still see Hopkins as an $18 million player on a multiyear deal, but ‘it’s such a strange time to reach the market; everyone has already spent and allocated.’ Another guessed he’d get between $8 million and $10 million on a one-year deal, with some upside built in to make him whole if he could produce at his accustomed level.’

Breer then guessed that the latter prognostication of $8 million and $10 million on a one-year deal is what the three-time All-Pro would get “if Hopkins just chooses the highest bidder.”

Hopkins has already visited the Tennessee Titans, and that trip went well but ended without a deal, per Dianna Russini of ESPN.

The New England Patriots also have interest and will host Hopkins this week, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss, who believes that the team is looking to add him on a one-year deal.

“A one-year, $10 million contract that would be worth up to $12 million to $13 million might be a more reasonable target for Hopkins,” Reiss wrote.

Hopkins has played 10 NFL seasons—seven with the Houston Texans and three with the Arizona Cardinals, who released him in May in a salary-cap-cutting move.

“With the team resetting its roster under a new GM and coach, and with Hopkins carrying a $30 million salary-cap charge while missing 15 of the past 26 games between suspension and injury, moving on from the soon-to-be 31-year-old made sense,” Darren Urban of azcardinals.com wrote.

Hopkins caught 64 passes for 717 yards and three touchdowns in nine games last year. He missed six games for a violation of the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy (Hopkins denied knowingly taking a banned substance) and two more for a knee injury.

He’s a five-time Pro Bowler who has four 100-catch campaigns and six 1,000-yard seasons to his name. He snatched 115 passes for 1,407 yards and six scores in his last full season (2020).