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The Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans made a big move on Wednesday morning when the defending Super Bowl champions picked up DeAndre Hopkins from the lowly Titans. Going the other way is a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft that could end up becoming a fourth-rounder if certain conditions are met.
The Chiefs wide receiver room is incredibly banged up, and the Titans felt it was time to move on from Hopkins, as he is in the final year of his contract, and the team has struggled mightily through their first six games. So with this deal in the books, let's take a closer look at it and hand out some grades for Kansas City and Tennessee and see how they fared in this move.
Chiefs get: WR DeAndre Hopkins
Titans get: Conditional 2024 fourth-round pick
Hopkins is obviously the main piece of this trade, so we will take a look at the Chiefs side of this deal first. There's no doubt that wide receiver help was needed, as Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown are both likely out for the season, and veteran replacement JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered a hamstring injury in the team's Week 7 win over the San Francisco 49ers that is going to hold him out for at least one week.
After not being very aggressive in their quest to land either Davante Adams or Amari Cooper, the Chiefs front office changed gears after Smith-Schuster's injury and went out and got Hopkins, who is a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All Pro. The veteran pass catcher will immediately be tasked with leading the Chiefs wide receiver corps, and catching passes from Patrick Mahomes will surely be an upgrade from working with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph.
Hopkins only has 15 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown this season, which is largely due to the Titans incompetence on offense. He posted 75 receptions for 1057 yards and seven scores last season, so while Hopkins likely isn't the Pro Bowl caliber player he once was, he should be able to produce at a much higher level within Kansas City's offense.
There's not much risk involved in this deal for the Chiefs, as they part with a Day 3 draft pick, and will be on the hook for a little over half of Hopkins' contract for the rest of the season, which they have the cap space to afford. Sure, they could have targeted a younger, more productive guy like Cooper Kupp, but Hopkins will get the job done, and he will immediately be looking to form a dangerous tandem with Mahomes under center.
Final Grade: B+
On the other end of this deal, we have the Titans, who have been one of the worst teams in the NFL this season. Levis has struggled mightily under center in his second season, and is currently battling a shoulder injury. That has led to Rudolph stepping in and replacing him for the time being, and while he's been better than Levis, the ceiling with him running the offense is very low.
With Hopkins in the final year of his contract and a full-scale rebuild on the horizon, unloading him ahead of the trade deadline made sense. The return of a fifth-round pick that could become a fourth-rounder isn't all that tantalizing, but it's better than losing Hopkins for nothing, which is what would have likely ended up happening in free agency this upcoming offseason anyways.
There's no doubt this hurts Tennessee in the short term, but that really isn't a concern at this point. The Titans are aimed towards building for the future now, so clearing some cap space while picking up another draft pick will help them in their quest to achieve that. This certainly isn't what the team was hoping would happen at the beginning of this season, but at least the front office was proactive in recognizing where they are, and managed to get something of value in return for Hopkins, even if it's not a very flashy deal.
Final Grade: B-
