The Houston Texans chose to trade DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals, and they may have had no choice considering that his reps made it clear that he wouldn't show up if he didn't get a new deal, according to Dianna Russini of ESPN.
After the Texans agreed to trade DeAndre Hopkins, sources told me Hopkins' reps told the Texans weeks prior he wanted a new deal paying him somewhere between $18- $20mil per year. The team was told Hopkins wouldn't show, if he didn't get the deal. Houston moved forward with trade
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) March 18, 2020
According to Russini, Hopkins wanted a new deal that would pay him between $18-$20 million. The Texans didn't want to pay him that contract, so they decided to move on from him and ship him off to the Cardinals. The Texans received some pushback from fans and others across the league for the haul they received back in the trade, but it's pretty clear they were afraid the situation was only going to get worse if they didn't trade him away.
The Cardinals are expected to work out a long term extension with him, and now they have one of the best wide receivers in all of football. Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury is an offense-first coach, and he has a lot of weapons at his disposal now. Hopkins gets to join up with Kyler Murray and Larry Fitzgerald.
The Cardinals also put the transition tag on Kenyan Drake, so it appears he will be with the team for one more year.
The Texans' big question now is where they will go to try and replace Hopkins. The Texans signed Randall Cobb to a three-year deal, but that isn't going to be enough to replace Hopkins.
Not having Hopkins next year is going to be tough, but hopefully, Bill O'Brien has a plan on how to deal with this or there will be even more backlash.
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