DeAndre Hopkins Can Carry Houston Texans Offense to Playoffs Again
By Luke Sims
Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is the offensive force driving the team to the playoffs, balancing the defense on a team that has struggled to produce on offense.
When most casual fans think of the Houston Texans, they think defense.
The image of J.J. Watt tearing up offensive lines immediately jumps to the forefront.
What is easily overlooked are some of the stars on offense. It can be forgiven. Without Arian Foster at running back, the Texans were almost completely devoid of standout offensive players in 2015.
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Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was the exception.
Hopkins gave even Antonio Brown (widely recognized as the best receiver in football last year) a run for his money through a significant portion of the 2015 campaign. He finished the season with the third best yards (1521), eighth in touchdowns (11), fourth in receptions per game (6.9), and fourth in yards per game (95.1) in the league. All told, Hopkins showed he can be among the best at his position.
He did all of this in 2015 while being dragged down by one of the worst quarterback situations in the NFL’s last few years. As highlighted by NFL Spin Zone’s Michael Davis:
"Hopkins put him his best numbers as a professional thus far which is extremely impressive considering the Texans went through four different quarterbacks last season, all of which are mediocre to below average at best."
Those four quarterbacks were Brandon Weeden, T.J. Yates, Ryan Mallett, and Bryan Hoyer. That’s hardly an All-Star lineup for the stud wide receiver to be posting some of the best numbers in football.
Hopkins’ peers almost all had the benefit of being paired with better quarterbacks. Julio Jones has Matt Ryan, Odell Beckham Jr. has Eli Manning, Brown has Ben Roethlisberger, Brandon Marshall even had Ryan Fitzpatrick‘s renaissance aiding him. Hopkins, meanwhile, had to turn up to work each and every Sunday knowing that he had to dig deep to carry his team to victory.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this is that Hopkins was involved in almost every single game in 2015. He only posted one game below 50 yards (a 36-yard effort against the New Orleans Saints) and had nine games with 90 yards or more. Defenses ranging from completely abysmal, like the Jacksonville Jaguars, to among the best, like the Kansas City Chiefs, couldn’t limit Hopkins from utterly dominating the game from the wide receiver position.
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Now, armed with
at running back,
at quarterback, Will Fuller as a complementary wide receiver, and that tenacious defense, Hopkins can finally get some breathing room.
After tearing up defenses while facing double coverage and essentially acting as a one-man army, imagine what Hopkins can do when he can find space more easily, when he can occasionally run free, when the defense actually has to account for the running game. This is a receiver who fell just 76 yards short of equaling the entire production of the Houston Texans running game last season.
Hopkins is still a growing player. He is still finding his rhythm on a Texans offense that has been one big roller coaster ride to this point. He’s the only player in the top five of receiving yards from 2015 who didn’t have a catch rate above 60 percent. He can improve his numbers even further going forward.
Osweiler and Hopkins are already developing a strong rapport (per The Sports Xchange) and he will finally have a quarterback that can competently perform on every singly down. Hopkins has waited three years for this to happen and can be counted on to not waste the opportunity.
Fantasy: Is Hopkins a top-10 player in fantasy for 2016?
While there will be stiff competition in the AFC South for the first time in years, Hopkins has all the right tools to be the power plant for a Texans offense that could be something special in 2016. The defense can keep games close, but Hopkins will help get them over the top.
After all, he’s done it before.