The Arizona Cardinals have finally bitten the bullet and made the decision to release star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
This move has been anticipated for some time due to Hopkins’ hefty salary and the financial implications it had on the team’s salary cap. With a team-high cap hit of $30.75 million, Hopkins ranked as the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL and seventh overall. Something that likely wasn’t going to be put to good use on a team that’s largely expected to have a bottom 5 record in the league this season.
By parting ways with Hopkins, the Cardinals will free up $8.15 million in cap space for the 2023 season. However, they will also incur a significant dead cap hit of $22.6 million. Rather than designating him as a post June 1st cut, the Cardinals opted to absorb the full cap hit this season, thus reinforcing the notion that they’ll be in a “rebuilding year” to put it lightly.
Trade rumours had been swirling around Hopkins for months, but the Cardinals were unable to make a deal during the NFL draft in April. General manager Monti Ossenfort made it clear that Hopkins was a key part of their plans at the time, stating, “DeAndre’s a Cardinal, and we’re moving forward.” Several teams, including the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots, had reportedly shown interest in acquiring Hopkins, but a deal never materialized.
Prior to his release, Hopkins skipped the Cardinals’ voluntary organized team activities, citing his presence in Toronto for training purposes during an appearance on the “I Am Athlete” podcast with Brandon Marshall.
When asked what he was looking for in a potential team earlier this week, Hopkins responded “What I want is stable management upstairs, that’s something I haven’t really had the past couple years of my career coming from Houston and then to Arizona…A QB who loves the game, a QB who brings everybody on board with him, not just himself but everybody around him … and a great defense. A great defense wins championships.”
During his three seasons in Arizona, Hopkins compiled impressive numbers, amassing 2,696 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns on 221 receptions. In the 2022 season, he recorded 64 catches for a team-leading 717 yards and three touchdowns. A total made all the more impressive when one remembers that he was suspended for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, causing him to miss the first six games of the season.
With Hopkins no longer in the picture, the Cardinals will look to their remaining wide receivers to fill the void. The group is led by Marquise Brown, who had 67 receptions for 709 yards in 2022, Greg Dortch who had 52 catches for 467 yards and Rondale Moore’s 41 catches for 414 yards.
Originally acquired by the Cardinals in a trade with the Houston Texans in March of 2020, the Texans received running back David Johnson, a second-round pick in 2020, and a fourth-round pick in 2021, while the Cardinals were gifted Hopkins and a fourth-round pick.
The release of DeAndre Hopkins marks the end of an era for the Arizona Cardinals, as they part ways with one of the league’s premier wide receivers. With Kyler Murray continuing to recover from knee surgery, the club won’t have any pressure to rush him back to game action in what’s expected to be a long year in the desert.
That being said, with Arizona possessing not only their own 1st round pick, but also Houston’s (acquired in a draft day deal), they’ll ultimately have two shots at selecting number 1 overall in the 2024 draft. This could complicate Murray’s future with the club, as next year’s QB class appears to be one of the deeper groups to come out of college in recent memory.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
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