DeAndre Hopkins extremely important for Houston Texans in 2015

The Houston Texans look to be on the cusp on a major change in their franchise, as wide receiver Andre Johnson and the team seem to be ready to part ways very soon.

In the Texans’ second NFL Draft after selecting David Carr in the 2002 Draft, they would land a future Hall-of-Famer in Andre Johnson with the third overall pick.

Johnson would have a great rookie season on a bad Texans team, as in 16 games, Johnson caught 66 passes for 976 yards with four touchdowns. It wouldn’t take long for Johnson to make a Pro Bowl, as in 2004, Johnson would have 79 receptions, 1,142 yards, and six touchdowns.

In 2007, the Texans would go in a different direction at quarterback with David Carr’s struggles leading to them brining in Matt Schaub from the Atlanta Falcons. With Schaub at quarterback, Johnson would really hit the prime of his career with some more talent on the team.

After an injury-plagued 2007 season, Johnson would have his best season in 2008. In the Texans’ second consecutive 8-8 season, Johnson would have his best season of his career to that point with 115 receptions and 1,575 yards.

Johnson has proved in his career that when he is on the field, he is one of the games great with four seasons of more than 1,400 yards receiving. Johnson was always a focal point of an opposing team’s defense, as the Texans wouldn’t have a wide receiver that complimented Johnson until 2013.

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Late in the 2013 NFL Draft, the Texans would finally address helping out Johnson by drafting DeAndre Hopkins with the 27^th overall pick. Hopkins would go on to have a rookie season comparable to Johnson. In 2013, Hopkins would have 52 receptions, 802 yards, two touchdowns, and an impressive 15.4 yards per catch. With Hopkins alongside him, Johnson would have a great season as well, as he caught 109 passes for 1,407 yards with five touchdowns. Despite the Texans having a good wide receiver duo with Johnson and Hopkins in 2013, they still only had two wins on the season.

In 2014, there would be a beginning of the changing of the guard for the Texans, as Hopkins would continue emerge in Houston. Last season Hopkins would be the Texans’ leading-receiver with 1,210 yards on 76 catches to go along with six touchdowns. Johnson would still have a productive season with 85 catches, but despite a good amount of catches he fell short of 1,000 yards receiving, and had just three touchdowns.

Johnson is going to be 34-years-old by the start of next season, which is becoming very old for a NFL wide receiver, but Johnson is recently removed from a 1,400-yard season, which should mean he’ll draw interest from other teams.

For the Texans this comes as big decision, as Johnson has been the face of the franchise since he was drafted. Now next season it will be Hopkins as the No. 1 receiver in Houston, and he has shown over the past two seasons that he has the skills to be great. It will be very odd to see Johnson playing in a different uniform next season, as he’s been the best player in Texans history

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