Why We “Gifted” Hopkins to the Cardinals

So we’re 12 days away from the 2020 NFL Draft and 4 years ago we drafted Watson with the number 12th overall pick. It was Rick Smith’s greatest move as a GM without a doubt.

However, this move was done kind of dirty lol, we traded a WHOLE first round pick to Cleveland to move one spot ahead of the Cardinals who had the 13th overall pick.

Cardinals at the time had Carson Palmer and well, he retired shortly after. My theory is that just like Mahomes and the way he was “groomed” by Alex Smith before taking over, the same instance was going to occur for Deshaun Watson in Arizona. Arizona was for sure going to draft a QB, Deshaun Watson more specifically. We basically stole DW4 from Arizona, I mean they ended up drafting Josh Rosen a couple years after (Kyler Murray the year after him). So us stealing DW4 from Arizona kinda justifies how we “gifted” Deandre Hopkins to the Cardinals. Kind of like a “hey we stole your franchise QB and you’re stuck with 5’10” Kyler Murray so here’s this possessive WR” yes, possessive.

Trading Hop kind of sent me a message at the time that they’re trying to stray away from one player getting all the targets and what not, and Cooks being traded here proved that. This offense is going to be built around speed, quick reads, and quick tempo. Hell with the WR’s we got on our roster, they are some BURNERS who can beat anyone 1v1 with speed and having David Johnson and Duke line up vs LB’s is setting up favorable matchups for us with our big bodied TE’s.

Never forget, the NFL is about a game of matchups and we have players that can exploit any matchup that any team brings upon us.

Even though we “gifted” Hopkins, IMO we got better, shed cap, and are able to opt out of the two players we traded for if they don’t pan out well for us.

Also, people need to understand that if Hopkins wanted more money with THREE YEARS left on his contract but the Texans aren’t able to afford it, it’s just asking for more bad blood in the locker room on top of the fact that, who even brings baby mommas around locker rooms?