Commanders' coaching connection with five-time Pro Bowl receiver makes him the perfect trade target
The Washington Commanders (5-2) have one of the NFL's best offenses thanks to the duo of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.The Commanders offense has hit the ground running, pretty much, since the season started. Most recently, the team scored 40+ points for the second time this season in a blowout win […]
The Washington Commanders (5-2) have one of the NFL's best offenses thanks to the duo of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.
The Commanders offense has hit the ground running, pretty much, since the season started. Most recently, the team scored 40+ points for the second time this season in a blowout win over the Carolina Panthers (1-6). And, that happened without Daniels on the field for the vast majority of the game.
Even though the offense is humming, the unit could still use some help in certain spots. One such area is wide receiver. Terry McLaurin is unsurprisingly holding down the fort down as the team's No. 1 target in the passing game and the guys behind him have done an OK job of making plays of their own, but the position group behind McLaurin could still use an upgrade, quite frankly.
We're at the point in the season where said upgrades are starting to become available via trade, as well. As we saw last week, teams are trying to add players they think can get them over a specific hump or give them that push they need to get to the top, or, teams are shipping guys off because their season is nearly-over, if not already over.
One such team in the latter sense is the Tennessee Titans, a 1-5 squad that looks completely rudderless at this point. The target on their roster would be wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who looked "detached" from the Titans offense during Sunday's blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. Hopkins basically didn't play the entire fourth quarter and finished the game with just one reception for -2 yards on one target.
After the game, he told reporters he was dealing with soreness and that "he was doing what he was told". The former answer makes sense and the latter answer is a bit of a question mark when it comes to the meaning of the comment.
What exactly was Hopkins being told? To stand on the sideline? If so, why? Titans head coach Brian Callahan told reporters after the game that he was unsure as to whether or not Hopkins got hurt, so it doesn't seem like he would've told Hopkins to sit out because of the soreness.
"I've got to check with Todd (Titans Director of Sports Medicine) to see if there's anything to that," Callahan said. "I didn't get an update on that. But I'm not sure."
It's a strange situation and Hopkins is easily on pace to have the worst season of his career. The Titans offense is a putrid unit that can't get much right and it doesn't look like Callahan and co. are figuring out how to turn things around anytime soon.
So, why not look toward the future and try to get some kind of return for Hopkins, who is in the final year of his contract, anyway?
The Commanders make way too much sense when it comes to potentially acquiring DeAndre Hopkins
And Kingsbury is the obvious reason why. Hopkins had back-to-back 1,000+ yard seasons under the Commanders offensive coordinator, including one of the best years of his career in 2020. He knows the offense and would be able to hit the ground running.
The Commanders wouldn't have to give much away to acquire Hopkins, nor would they have to pay him a ton of money in 2024. At most, it would probably take a Day 3 pick, or maybe a third-rounder, to get him in a trade. Washington currently has a full slate of draft picks in 2025, along with an extra third-rounder, an extra sixth-rounder, and two extra seventh-rounders.
In terms of salary, Washington would pay the remaining $5,053,889 of his $8,270,000 base salary, along with the remaining $660k of his $1,020,000 per-game bonus. In all, from a monetary standpoint, the Commanders would pay Hopkins around $5,713,889 for his services in 2024. Washington currently has a little more than $25.1 million in cap space.
Hopkins would quickly represent an upgrade that gives Daniels another reliable playmaker to help his development continue. Yes, Hopkins would likely be a one-year rental, but he'd be a cheap rental that could really make a difference, at the end of the day. I don't think he'd hurt the development of guys like Luke McCaffrey, Ben Sinnott, Dyami Brown, and others, either. In fact, one could argue his presence would help them because it would take more coverage/heat off them when they're on the field.
The five-time Pro Bowler can play both inside and out, making him a versatile addition, as well. Overall, it's a move that just simply makes too much sense because if it works, it can help Daniels' growth and make the offense even more potent than it already is. If it doesn't, well, the Commanders aren't losing a ton of money and they're shipping off a draft pick that would've represented a roll of the dice, anyway.
There's hardly anything to lose and a lot to gain. For a potential playoff team like the Commanders, it's a move that's absolutely worth making.
DeAndre Hopkins comments on awkwardly watching the Titans lose to Bills from the sideline
The DeAndre Hopkin situation officially smells funny.
