While the Cardinals are allowing DeAndre Hopkins the opportunity to secure a potential trade, things have been fairly quiet on his future plans.
However, former Cardinals general manager Steve Keim suggested Hopkins has not yet been traded because of his current contract. The five-time Pro Bowler is slated to earn $19.45 million in 2023 and $14.9 million in ’24 under his current deal.
Hopkins’s production has dropped significantly since the 2020 season, when he recorded 1,407 receiving yards on 115 receptions. In 2021, he was limited to 42 catches in just 10 games, and last year, he recorded 717 receiving yards in nine games after completing a six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s rules against performance enhancing drugs.
Keim said the franchise must realize his value has dipped since it traded David Johnson, a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick for Hopkins and a fourth rounder. Hopkins will turn 31 in June.
“They’re probably going to have to come to understand that they’re probably not going to get as much as they would if he was a younger player or his contract was considerably lower, where you could get him for a second-round [pick],” Keim said on the Green Light podcast with Chris Long. “It could end up being a second- or third-day draft pick to really get it done. Probably [need to] get a new deal done.”
Keim, who negotiated Hopkins’s current deal with Arizona, mentioned that the contract with the three-time All-Pro and working out a contract for longtime Cardinals great Larry Fitzgerald were two deals that put “all the grey in his beard.” But Hopkins now recently hiring an agent—after previously representing himself at the negotiating table—may signal the star wideout would be open to a new contract.
That aligns with previous reporting by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport in March that Hopkins would be “flexible” on the last two years of his contract rather than “shoot for a top-of-the-market deal.”
