Arizona Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins is making it clear he no longer wants to play in the desert. So why keep him around?
DeAndre Hopkins is finished in the desert, and there is no debate about it. Earlier today, Hopkins tweeted the following cryptic message, before deleting the post.
"“Hopkins does not want a raise,” - Nuk. "DeAndre Hopkins - via NFL.com
Whether Hopkins really wants a raise remains to be seen. But he might want something else, and the Arizona Cardinals are nowhere near ready enough to compete for a Vince Lombardi Trophy. How do we know this? Well, consider the following.
Just last week the All Things Covered podcast hosted Hopkins, and they presented four possible landing spots via trade. On the podcast, he used facial expressions to imply where he wanted to land, responding favorably to the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills in the exercise.
Arizona Cardinals need to work out a deal with either Buffalo, Kansas City
At this point, it’s clear Hopkins does not want to play for the Cardinals, much like his teammate from 2020-2022, Budda Baker. That said, the Cards need to get a move on in trading the star receiver to one of the two teams he seems to be more than happy to play for in 2023.
Buffalo and Kansas City are also the way too early favorites to battle it out to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LVIII, along with the Cincinnati Bengals. With the Lombardi on the line for the aforementioned Bills and Chiefs, chances are, Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort could get his coveted second and mid-round pick for Hopkins, which will immediately help him revamp an underwhelming roster.
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this, but it’s clear that DeAndre Hopkins no longer wants to be in a Cardinals uniform. If he did, he’d be making unfavorable expressions to all four teams presented to him. It didn’t happen, so let’s make a deal and transform this into a win-win situation.
Source: DeAndre Hopkins Evaluates Possible Trade Destinations Without Saying a Single Word by Joseph Salvador, SI.com
Source: Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins tweets that he 'doesn't want a raise' by Christian Gonzales, NFL.com