![]() The result was a career high 9.6 YPT, good for sixth among the league's 28 100-target wideouts. Coming off a volume-driven 2017, Hopkins took his efficiency to new heights last year with 194 more yards on 11 fewer targets. Hopkins might not be the biggest or fastest receiver in the league, but he's one of the best. With training camps possibly delayed, there's some risk in taking a receiver with a new city, team and quarterback, but Kyler Murray is a rising star, and Hopkins should be his top target ahead of holdovers Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk. Surprisingly, the Texans traded their star wideout to the Cardinals for the aforementioned Johnson in March, setting up Hopkins in what's likely to be one of the faster-paced and more prolific passing offenses in the league. (In 2018, he saw 25 red-zone looks and scored 11 TDs.) Hopkins isn't huge, but he has ideal red-zone skills, so expect some positive regression both in opportunity and output. Surprisingly, Hopkins didn't see much red-zone work last year (13 targets, T-26th), which largely explains why he scored only seven times. ![]() Hopkins has never been especially fast - 4.57 40 at the combine - but his superior route running and ball skills have more than made up for it. His body control and toe tapping on the sidelines are second to none. At 6-1, 212, Hopkins has good size and vies with Michael Thomas for the best hands in the game. Maybe it was the injury, or maybe Hopkins is slowing down in his late prime, but he simply stopped making big plays - only one of his 150 targets went for 40-plus yards, and 16 went for 20 or more yards. The biggest difference between 20 was the efficiency - Hopkins dropped from 13.7 YPC and 9.6 YPT to 11.2 and 7.8, respectively. ![]() Hopkins played through a rib injury for a good chunk of the year and sat out the regular-season finale, but he still managed a 104-1,165-7 campaign in his age-27 season. Hopkins' 2019 season wasn't what you had hoped for in the middle of the first round, but it was a far cry from the disastrous campaigns of Le'Veon Bell or David Johnson. It’s hard to find a player with a higher floor than Hopkins. Green and 49th overall pick Rondale Moore, but no one to threaten his target-heavy role. At 29, Hopkins is probably past his peak, but Hall of Fame level receivers usually produce into their 30s, and his setup in Arizona is nearly ideal in a pass-first offense with complementary pieces like Christian Kirk, an aging A.J. His lack of vertical explosiveness hasn’t mattered much in Houston or Arizona, though, because he catches anything thrown remotely in his vicinity (only one drop in 160 targets), runs precise routes and is one of the greatest in NFL history at getting his feet down in bounds near the sideline. At 6-1, 212, Hopkins has good size but only average speed. With Kyler Murray under center instead of Deshaun Watson, Hopkins posted his third consecutive 100-catch season, finished second among wideouts in receiving yards and averaged 8.8 YPT, third highest of his career. Kingsbury to take a step forward this season, though the downward trend throughout 2021Ĭhanging teams in the midst of a pandemic where offseason activities were severely curtailed didn’t seem to bother Hopkins much. There is also hope for quarterback Kyler Murray and coach Kliff The other hand, 30 isn't especially old for a wide receiver, and Hopkins could have more room to operate with the speedy Brown replacing Christian Kirk, who signed with the Jaguars this The CardinalsĮven traded for former Ravens wideout Marquise Brown shortly before the announcement,įurther lowering the odds for Hopkins to restore the huge target counts from his prime years. Suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substances policy. ![]() The odds for a rebound year this season took a big hit with the announcement of a six-game He reportedly made a smooth recovery from MCL surgery this offseason, but ![]() Having less than half the yardage (his first year in Arizona, 2020, was also his third in a row withġ00-plus catches). Hopkins scored eight touchdowns, two more than the year before despite Hopkins has been a regular on injury reports for years, and in 2021 it finally caught up with him.Īfter playing at least 15 games in each of his first eight seasons, he played only 10 last year,Īlso finishing with his lowest per-game averages for yardage (57.2) and targets (6.4) since he ![]()
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