DeAndre Hopkins played great in his Cardinals debut

DeAndre Hopkins caught a career-high 14 passes in his Cardinals debut.

On Thursday night, it was clear the Houston Texans missed DeAndre Hopkins. On Sunday, the All-Pro receiver made it clear exactly why.

Making his debut for the Cardinals, Hopkins had a career-high 14 receptions for 151 yards.

Even without catching a touchdown (barely), Hopkins produced big plays as Kyler Murray’s new favorite target.

Murray targeted Hopkins on 43.2 percent of his passes, the highest in the NFL in Week 1 games played so far, according to NFL.com fantasy expert Michael F. Florio. If you’re Murray, why not?

The exciting new Murray-to-Hopkins connection resulted in a 24-20 upset over San Francisco.

DeAndre Hopkins was a monster for the Cardinals against the 49ers.

Hopkins excelling isn’t exactly new. He was a three-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler with the Texans for a reason. In 110 career starts in the regular season, he has averaged 5.7 catches and 78.2 yards per game. That’s consistent production.

Across those years he has caught passes from Matt Schaub, Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mallet, Brian Hoyer, T.J. Yates Brandon Weeden, Brock Osweiler, Tom Savage and Deshaun Watson. Frankly, it doesn’t matter who throws his way. He just balls out.

The Cardinals were betting on that when they traded a second and fourth-round pick and running back David Johnson to Houston this spring to add a top-tier weapon to Murray’s arsenal.

After one week of action, it definitely looks like Arizona got the better end of that deal.

With Murray and Hopkins clicking so early, the Cardinals will look to pick up a head of steam with upcoming matchups against the Washington Football Team, Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers

If you’re a fantasy football owner lucky enough to have Hopkins on your team, pay attention. Those are vulnerable defenses Hopkins could pad even more stats against.