The Arizona Cardinals made a shocking decision on Friday as they decided on a DeAndre Hopkins release, as opposed to a trade. Now, any team in the NFL can sign him, and the Dallas Cowboys are actually the betting favorites to do so. Odds makers are right more often than they are wrong, so here are the three reasons a DeAndre Hopkins-Cowboys signing should, and likely will, happen.
3. The Cowboys' wide receiver situation was rough last year
The 2022 NFL season wasn’t great for Cowboys receivers. CeeDee Lamb was a star, as usual. He had 107 catches for 1,359 yards and nine touchdowns. After that, though, things got ugly.
The No. 2 WR on the team was Noah Brown, with 43 catches, 555 yards, and three TDs. Michael Gallup was next with 39 catches, 424 yards, and four TDs, and then T.Y. Hilton caught seven balls for 121 yards in just three games.
Dallas had to upgrade their WR corps for 2023, and they did. The team traded for Houston Texans WR Brandin Cooks this offseason. And while that is a solid move, it still leaves Michael Gallup as WR3, and not all that much after that with Jalen Tolbert, KaVontae Turpin, and Simi Fehoko rounding out the group.
Jerry Jones and the front office didn’t do much (outside of the Cooks deal) to help the unit this offseason. They did draft South Carolina WR Jalen Brooks in the seventh round of this year’s draft, but that’s about it.
Doing a DeAndre Hopkins-Cowboys deal would bump this group up from the solid B range it lives in now to A or even A+ territory. Lamb, Cooks, and Hopkins would immediately be one of (if not) the best trios in the league, and that would be huge news for Dak Prescott.
2. Dak Prescott needs every chance to succeed… or fail
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is at a crossroads. He’s about to turn 30, and while he’s definitely a good NFL QB, Prescott still hasn’t shown that he can be an elite, Super Bowl-winning signal-caller.
Prescott is heading into Year 3 of a four-year deal he signed ahead of the 2021 season. After this year, the Cowboys have a reasonable out, according to Spotrac, so they will need to decide whether to get rid of him in the next two seasons or give him another big extension.
In order to figure this out, the Cowboys need to give Prescott every weapon they can on offense, and with the Cardinals' DeAndre Hopkins release, an opportunity to do that just fell in their laps.
Putting all the best pieces around Prescott to help him succeed may be expensive, but it’s not as scary as ditching the QB and drafting or trading for someone else. The Cowboys know what they have in Dak, and if they get Hopkins, all the excuses and the “oh, so close” moments should come to an end.
DeAndre Hopkins on the Cowboys supercharges the offense and will allow Prescott to sink or swim next season. While that could end up being a tough pill to swallow, this is the year the Cowboys need to know one way or the other.
1. A DeAndre Hopkins-Cowboys signing keeps him away from the Philadelphia Eagles
Now that the Cardinals pulled the trigger on the DeAndre Hopkins release, teams across the NFL are trying to get their ducks in a row to sign the talented WR.
Several teams will offer a sales pitch that includes all the things Hopkins himself recently said he wants in a new team: stability, a good quarterback, and a chance to win.
Dallas can offer all these things to one level or another. No owner is more entrenched with his team than Jerry Jones, Dak Prescott is one of the best QBs in the NFC, and as weak as the conference is, the Cowboys have as much chance to reach a Super Bowl as (almost) anyone else.
The problem is, that (almost) refers to the Cowboys' NFC East rival, the Philadelphia Eagles. And while the Cowboys are the betting favorites to land Hopkins at +200, the Eagles aren’t far behind at +700, the fifth-best odds to land the former Cardinals star wideout.
And if the Eagles get Hopkins, that would be a disaster for the Cowboys.
Philly is already loaded with talent at WR, with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Adding a player the caliber of DeAndre Hopkins would be an embarrassment of riches for newly extended QB Jalen Hurts.
And, as far as Hurts goes, he is one of the QBs Hopkins recently named as the players he’d most like to play with in the future.
The simple fact is, Dallas cannot — under any circumstances — let Philadelphia get Hopkins. And the best way to prevent that is by making a DeAndre Hopkins-Cowboys deal before the Eagles do.
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