DeAndre Hopkins has been named first-team All-Pro for every season since he signed a five-year, $81 million contract extension with the Texans in 2017. That's three straight years of the 27-year-old literally topping the list of the best wide receivers of football.
So ... time to trade him?
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Tracking notable signings and trades in 2020
From NBC Sports' Peter King: "It might be just pre-draft chatter, but two teams over the weekend told me to watch Houston and DeAndre Hopkins, who has three years and a reasonable $40 million left on his contract, and who'd cause only a $3 million cap hit to the Texans if they traded him. Houston is currently in draft hell, without a top-50 pick in 2020 and 2021, and coach Bill O’Brien has huge needs to fill on his offensive line, in the secondary and overall youth on the front seven; J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus will play this year at 31 and 30."
King's point about the $3 million dead cap hit a Hopkins trade would leave on Houston's books is important; it's the only reason the Texans would even consider a deal for the star wide receiver. If traded, Hopkins would save the team $11 million in salary cap space in 2020, plus another $13.5 million in 2021 and $13.915 million in 2022.
Because almost all of the guarantees on Hopkins's contract have been paid, he is extremely tradable from a financial standpoint.
Of course, from a football standpoint, trading Hopkins — even if Houston can get a Texas-sized haul of draft picks in return — would not be a great look for the defending AFC South champions in the short term.
King specifically mentioned the Patriots, 49ers, Giants and Dolphins as teams that are interesting possibilities for a Hopkins trade. All have plenty of cap space, and all are in the market for a receiver like Hopkins.
Another layer for the Texans is the fact that they soon will need to pay Deshaun Watson like the top quarterback he is. For a team that has plenty notable holes on the roster and will soon have heavier books with the Watson contract, the assets Houston could collect in a Hopkins trade are tempting.
As great as Hopkins is, the fact of the matter is he plays a position at which greatness doesn't have enough of an impact on the results of games. If having one of the best wide receivers in football (and paying him as such) mattered that much, the Texans would have advanced beyond the divisional round of the playoffs at least once during Hopkins' tenure.
They have not.