Getty Image / Christian Petersen
Throughout this offseason, football fans have been waiting to see where DeAndre Hopkins will end up playing next year.
The expectation has been that the Arizona Cardinals will trade him sometime before the start of the 2023 season.
So far, they haven’t been able to find a deal for him and after Brandin Cooks was traded for a couple of late draft picks, it has begun to seem unlikely they’ll get the price they were hoping for Hopkins.
New Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was asked about the situation by NFL Network’s Steve Wyche and said that he’s going to operate as if Hopkins is going to be a member of the Cardinals next season.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon on DeAndre Hopkins trade rumors: "I'm operating that he's a Cardinal"https://t.co/EZjjBSOJkL pic.twitter.com/g4l921NaoT
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) March 26, 2023
I’m operating that he’s a Cardinal right now. So, I’m looking forward to getting in the meeting room and on the field with him and seeing where it can go. I just know he’s an elite player. Being a defensive guy, I had to go up against him a couple times in the division. The challenges that he presents. I’m excited to get to work with him.
I’m sure the first year head coach wouldn’t hate it if he had to coach DeAndre Hopkins next season.
Gannon is going to have the deck stacked against him early in his Cardinals tenure.
Kyler Murray won’t be available early in the year and he’s taking over a team that wasn’t all that good in 2022.
If Hopkins remains with the team, he’d at least have a strong group of pass catchers to work with between Hopkins, Hollywood Brown, Zach Ertz, and Rondale Moore. That offense would also have a lot of potential for when Murray is ready to return.
This comment definitely isn’t a guarantee Hopkins will be an Arizona Cardinal in September, but it sounds like the team’s new head coach is open to the idea.