The Chicago Bears could trade for a former All-Pro Wide Receiver
With Jordan Schultz of The Score reporting that DeAndre Hopkins will be made available via trade this offseason, the NFL media world has been sent into a frenzy.
Sources: #AZCardinals plan to try and trade All-Pro WR DeAndre Hopkins this offseason. DHop has 2 yrs and $34.36M left on his contract and is likely to seek a new deal. Owner Michael Bidwill plans to express this to GM candidates.
My story, via @theScore: https://t.co/xX8NHkULYH
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 10, 2023
How the Chicago Bears make sense
Before we dive in on why the Chicago Bears are the perfect landing spot for the former All-pro, let’s just start with saying that Ryan Poles will in no way include the Bears 1st overall pick in any deal for DeAndre Hopkins.
With that being said Nuk would be the perfect addition to the Bears WR room. The Bears saw progress from Justin Fields this year and it seems like the Bears are sticking with him as QB1 so why not give him the Bears best receiving threat since Brandon Marshall.
Last season the Bears traded for Chase Claypool at the trade deadline which did not really work out with Claypool having 14 catches for only 140 yards. The Bears leading receiver last season was Darnell Mooney who led the team in receptions (40) and receiving yards (493). Clearly these numbers are not going to cut it going forward. Ryan Poles needs to find a way to bring in new talent to the Bears WR corps, whether its Hopkins or someone else there needs to be change.
How the Bears would pull off a deal
The Bears have more than enough draft capital to swing a deal and more than enough cap space to sign Hopkins to a new deal. With the Roquan Smith trade the Bears were able to nab two additional picks in the 2023 draft and currently have the most available cap space in the NFL heading into the offseason. Really it comes down to if the Bears want Hopkins or not as they appear to be one of the best and clear landing spots for Hopkins.
One more factor that could possibly affect a potential Hopkins deal is the Arizona Cardinals current situation. They do not have a head coach or a GM at the moment. This is all coming from the Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell who plans to express to potential new GM candidates that he wants to trade Hopkins. Don’t expect this situation to gain any more traction until the Cardinals fill their vacancies.
What has Hopkins done in Arizona?
DeAndre “Nuk” Hopkins was sent to Arizona from Houston back in March of 2020. At this point Hopkins was coming off his 3rd straight 1,000+ receiving yard season (the 5th of his career at that point) and was ready to keep that going in Arizona with Kyler Murray. In his first year in Arizona Hopkins had a monster season (115 Rec, 1407 receiving yards, 6 TD) however ever since the 2020 season it has been all down hill for Hopkins. In 2021 Hopkins only saw the field in 10 games and posted one of his worst seasons yet (note that even in a down year by Hopkins standards he still caught 8 TDs).
It was early in 2022 when the league announced that DeAndre Hopkins violated the NFL’s PED violation and was suspended the first 6 games of the 2022 season. From that point Hopkins appeared in 9 games and likely would have posted yet another 100 catch, 1000 yard season if it wasn’t for Kyler Murray getting hurt and the Cardinals being god awful posting a -109 point differential.
Hopkins would likely benefit from a change of scenery and odds are he will be suiting up elsewhere in 2023. Nuk ultimately will get the final say on where that potential change of scenery would be as he has a no trade clause in his contract meaning he will have to approve any trade.
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