After a mostly short free agency saga, DeAndre Hopkins has a new team. The wide receiver will be signing with the Tennessee Titans. I think this is a weird fit, but the Titans also did pay him handsomely, so there’s that. At this stage in his career, I’d have thought that Hopkins would have signed with a true contender and not a team that is closer to a rebuild than a playoff spot.
However, Hopkins seems to be chasing the money here, and can you really blame him? After beginning his career in the AFC South with the Houston Texans, Hopkins returns there on a two-year deal with the Tennessee Titans.
Hopkins, 31, is a future Hall of Famer and All-Pro. His production during the last two years did dip, but that was mostly because Hopkins simply wasn’t on the field as much as he was before. He averaged 67.8 yards per game in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, where he played in just 19 games.
That number isn’t too far from his yards per game in every other year earlier in his career, which is 79.4.
BREAKING: Titans signing WR DeAndre Hopkins to a 2-year, $26M deal worth up to $32M with incentives. (via @rapsheet) pic.twitter.com/0k1KLaYQHU
— NFL (@NFL) July 16, 2023
The base value of the deal gives him an AAV of $13 million, and he can earn up to $32 million total on the contract. I truly did think he would have gotten more than he did, but I guess it’s not a bad deal for Hopkins, who will now catch passes with… Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill had an elite stretch with the Titans from 2019-2020, but did cool off a bit over the last two years, and that was when Arthur Smith left the Titans to become the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. On a side note, I do wonder if Tannehill ends up being a trade deadline trade to the Falcons if Desmond Ridder doesn’t pan out in year two.
For Hopkins, he does clearly get to be the WR1 of the team. No other pass catcher on the Titans will come close to matching the skill and production that Hopkins brings. The Titans still don’t feel like a competitive team, to me.
I think they finish third in the AFC South, behind the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. DeAndre Hopkins is a very good player, but I don’t think he moves the needle that much. The Titans’ offensive line and QB combination is quite poor, and I think that’ll end up being their demise.