Getty Image / Michael Owens
For the last few months, the Arizona Cardinals attempted to find somewhere to trade DeAndre Hopkins.
The team was heading for a major rebuild while Kyler Murray recovers from a knee injury and decided they would try to see what they could get for the 30-year old receiver 3 years after they traded David Johnson and a 2nd rounder to get him.
It turned out that what they could get for him was nothing.
The Cardinals ended up releasing him yesterday after being unable to find a trade partner.
Following his release, it has been revealed just how tough of a time the Cardinals were having trying to trade him.
According to NFL reporter Albert Breer, the Cardinals only had meaningful talks with the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
🏈 More on @DeAndreHopkins 🏈
• The Chiefs and Bills were the only teams to have substantive trade talks with Arizona.
• As was the case with Kansas City, contract was the issue for Buffalo.
• KC made progress, but @OBJ's deal ($15M base) more or less blew that progress up.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 27, 2023
As talented of a player as Hopkins is, his contract was clearly just too much of an obstacle to get past. It’s why the Cardinals apparently didn’t receive much real interest in him and why these two contenders didn’t end up making a deal happen.
Now those two teams are expected to be two of the favorites to sign him in free agency, but whether or not it happens will depend heavily on the kind of contract he is looking for.
There have been reports that Hopkins is still looking for a significant deal, which could be a deterrent for teams that weren’t willing to take on his previous contract.
Despite the apparent lack of interest in him so far this offseason, there should be plenty of teams interested in DeAndre Hopkins now that he’s available on the open market.