DeAndre Hopkins, Arizona Cardinals. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
DeAndre Hopkins to one of these three teams would be bad news for the Kansas City Chiefs.
With the Arizona Cardinals releasing DeAndre Hopkins, the free-agent wide receiver is now free to sign with any NFL franchise of his choosing, including the Kansas City Chiefs.
While Hopkins would surely love to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes (who wouldn’t?), the Chiefs have the worst cap situation in the league. They have a little over $1 million in money to spend. Hopkins could be signing on to play somewhere else at a discount, but he’s not going to sign for $1 million. Simply put, I don’t know how the Chiefs’ dollars can make enough sense here.
If Hopkins does sign elsewhere, Chiefs fans better hope he doesn’t join one of these three teams.
DeAndre Hopkins released: 3 worst-case scenario spots for Kansas City Chiefs
3
Los Angeles Chargers
AFC West
DeAndre Hopkins is interested in catching passes in-division from Justin Herbert
The Los Angeles Chargers are one of five quarterbacks Hopkins has said publicly he would love to catch passes from. While the Bolts were clearly the fifth of five in that exercise, keep in mind that they play in the same division as the Chiefs. With Justin Herbert now entering his prime, we should expect every time that the Chiefs play the Chargers to be a fireworks show going forward anyway.
Because the Chargers play the Chiefs twice annually, and potentially meet for a third time in the postseason, one would think this would be the worst place for Hopkins to land from a Kansas City perspective. However, the Chargers’ inherent snakebitten to hell nature usually gets the best of them. They’re capable of beating most teams, but nobody beats the Chargers like the Chargers do.
With a little over $12 million in cap space, Los Angeles is in a position to where it could add Hopkins on a bit of a discount. They are not officially priced out on him, but close. Given how frugal the franchise is historically, somebody will probably outbid them for Hopkins’ services, especially with the rent being due on Herbert’s second contract. He will be prioritized over adding Hopkins.
D-Hop in the powder blues would be a sight to behold, but other teams can pay him more money.
