DeAndre Hopkins: The Stud NFL Receiver No One is Talking About
By Ryan Ratty
There’s one stud NFL receiver that nobody is talking about — DeAndre Hopkins
In the NFL, many teams get more media and publicity than other teams. That’s the problem with the Houston Texans. Despite playing Texas, the country’s best football state, Houston often gets out-publicized by their in-state rival in the Dallas Cowboys. Regardless, the NFL is a league of production. What that means is that if you can produce numbers year in and year out, you’re going to have a home in this league. Despite being in just his second year, DeAndre Hopkins of the Texans has already hit professional stardom. The saddest thing is that, despite his production, Hopkins is still not getting enough recognition for his craft.
Because of his ability to stretch the field and the need for the Texans to bring in a playmaker opposite of the aging Andre Johnson, the Texans drafted Hopkins at the end of the first round in the 2013 NFL Draft. In the 2012 season, the year before Hopkins’ rookie year, the Texans were dominant on both sides of the ball. Not only was J.J. Watt’s defense playing excellent football, but the combination of Matt Schaub and Arian Foster was doing the same on the offensive side of the ball.
Although the Texans were a 12-4 football team, they thought that adding another skilled receiver like Hopkins would get them over the top. However, in 2013, the Texans fell off the face of NFL royalty. Houston started 2-0, but they lost 14 straight games. Although the Texans were horrendous in 2013, Hopkins had a solid rookie season even though the guys throwing to him, Schaub and Case Keenum, were pitiful to say the least. In that year, Hopkins caught 52 passes for 802 yards for two touchdowns. That’s a yards per catch average of 15.4, which was 20th in the league, thus showing Hopkins’ ability to be a commanding deep threat.
Now in his second year in the NFL, the man throwing Hopkins the ball is Ryan Fitzpatrick. While Fitzpatrick is a slight upgrade over Schaub and Keenum, the veteran is still not a quality quarterback. Because of how bad Fitzpatrick was playing, the Texans benched him for Ryan Mallett for Weeks 11 and 12. With Fitzpatrick at quarterback, Hopkins has caught 51 passes for 922 yards. With Mallett at quarterback, Hopkins caught nine passes for 119 yards.
After his rookie year, no one doubted Hopkins’ ability to separate or handle cornerbacks pressing at the line of scrimmage. Instead, the main questions after Hopkins’ rookie year was his ability to become a full-time receiver and his route-running skills. In his rookie year, Hopkins was a basically just a deep threat. But in Bill O’Brien’s offense, Hopkins has had to transition to a full-time receiver. This means that he has had to learn how to catch passes and create for himself at all three levels of the defense. Considering his play style at Clemson, which was predominantly a pass-happy, vertical offense, many believed he couldn’t make the transition. Instead, Hopkins is flourishing into the receiver many expected him to be out of Clemson.
After his extremely impressive performance against the Tennessee Titans last week, where he caught nine passes out of nine targets for 238 yards and two touchdowns, it’s now not a secret that Hopkins is the No. 1 guy in Houston’s offense. For so many years now, Andre Johnson has been the go-to guy for the Texans. For many Texans fans, it will be hard to lean on Hopkins now that Johnson is entering the last stage of his career, but it should be noted that Hopkins is a dominant receiver that is just as good with the ball in his hands, if not better than Johnson. With guys like Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders having such unbelievable years, something that needs to be said is that Hopkins is a 1,000-yard receiver, even though his quarterback is Ryan Fitzpatrick instead of elite signal-callers like Ben Roethlisberger or Peyton Manning.
At 6-6, the Texans are in the middle of a playoff race in the weak AFC. Obviously, Houston is on the outside looking in, but if the Texans play like the way they did against Tennessee last week, there is no question that this team will find their way in the playoffs. The amazing thing about Hopkins is that he didn’t experience a rookie bump in the NFL. Usually, NFL teams are patient with their rookie receivers, but the Texans were smart enough to see that Hopkins was the real deal from the get-go. Now nearing the end of his second year in the league, the sky is the limit for Hopkins.
Everyone will talk about the big-time wideouts in the league like Dez Bryant or Calvin Johnson, but there isn’t a better receiver at the age of 22 is this entire league than Hopkins. About two years have gone by and Hopkins is still not getting any recognition. Given the progression from his rookie year till now, Hopkins is emerging as one of the best receivers in the game. The time is now for Hopkins to get some attention. Although he is still young, Hopkins has played well enough to have some respect. It is only until teams play him before they see how productive Hopkins truly is.