In some Arizona Cardinals news not related to the 2022 NFL Draft, the team’s top receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, has been suspended for six games.
It’s certainly not the type of Arizona Cardinals news that fans wanted to hear shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 NFL Draft, but the team will now be without star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games of the 2022 regular season.
Hopkins has been suspended by the NFL for six games due to a violation of the league’s Performance Enhancing Drug policy according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
This is a massive loss for the Cardinals, who are hoping to contend for the top spot in the NFC during the 2022 campaign.
Arizona Cardinals News: Loss of DeAndre Hopkins is devastating
A big reason for Arizona’s collapse during the second half of the 2021 season was due to the absence of Hopkins, who missed seven games due to injury. The Cardinals went 3-4 in the seven matchups without their top receiver on the field last year.
Now, Arizona has to figure out how they’re going to make up for the loss of Hopkins during the first six games of the 2022 season.
Luckily, the Cardinals did just acquire wide receiver Marquise Brown from the Baltimore Ravens. So the arrival of Brown will definitely help soften the blow of not having Hopkins in the lineup.
Still, one of the biggest reasons to even trade for Brown was to help take some of the defensive attention off of Hopkins. Now, Arizona’s first six opponents are likely going to place the majority of their attention on stopping Brown since a 33-year-old A.J. Green probably isn’t going to strike a ton of fear in anyone.
It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals look to add a free-agent wide receiver or two to their roster before the start of next season. If not, Kyler Murray might be asked to put Arizona on his back for the first six weeks of the 2022 campaign.