Giants, Cowboys, 49ers & Lions Ignored DeAndre Hopkins During Free Agency, WR Says
The New York Giants needed to upgrade their wide receiver room this offseason. Other than CeeDee Lamb, the Dallas Cowboys lack another high-end option on the outside. Same goes for the Detroit Lions after Amon-Ra St. Brown. But none of those teams thought DeAndre Hopkins was the answer.
Hopkins ultimately signed with the Tennessee Titans on a two-year deal worth $26 million. The way the deal is structured, though, Hopkins only counts around $3.5 million against the salary cap this season.
Yes, $26 million is a large investment in a 31-year-old wide receiver. Especially one coming off two very forgettable seasons in Arizona. However, $3.6 million against the cap isn't a crazy amount to see if Hopkins can still return to elite-level -- or even above-average -- production.
The New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers declined to pursue DeAndre Hopkins, who ultimately signed with the Tennessee Titans. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
Yet, three teams that definitely could use a wide receiver didn't even return his phone calls. As did a fourth team, although that one makes a little more sense.
“Detroit Lions, they didn’t want me,” Hopkins told GQ during a sit-down interview. “Dallas Cowboys didn’t want me. Giants didn’t want me. Shit. Who else ain’t want me? San Fran ain’t want me.”
San Francisco has a stacked offensive playmaker pool filled by Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk. It's odd that Hopkins even wanted to go there given the uncertain quarterback situation and so many others mouths to feed.
Although, it does signal he wants to win. That's good news for Tennessee Titans fans.
He starts with the Detroit Lions, and they are interesting. Detroit has above league average salary cap space, according to Spotrac. They have Amon-Ra St. Brown, but he's a very different player than Hopkins. Their secondary outside options are Marvin Jones and Josh Reynolds.
No disrespect, but Hopkins is better than those guys.
As for the New York Giants, money may have been the biggest factor. They have just under $4 million in cap space and Hopkins would have taken up almost all of that. But there's no denying that he would have upgraded a receiving group led by ... Isaiah Hodgins? Darius Slayton?
The New York Giants are apparently comfortable with Daniel Jones throwing to Isaiah Hodgins and Darius Slayton, declining to pursue DeAndre Hopkins. (Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The team did draft Tennessee' Jalin Hyatt in the third round, but again, Hopkins would make more of a difference this season.
The Dallas Cowboys actually have plenty of cap space (fifth-most in the NFL), though that's going to change once Dak Prescott's contract kicks in. Still, they could conceivably have made the money work for this season.
They traded for Brandin Cooks, but he's about to turn 30 himself. It's hard to argue that if you're going to add a 30-year-old receiver to play opposite CeeDee Lamb, you might as well make it DeAndre Hopkins.
Whatever the reasons, none of those teams wanted Hopkins.
I bet most of their fanbases disagree with that decision.
But fans don't call the shots, do they?