DeAndre Hopkins rewards Chiefs for saving him from Titans with improbable catch: Best memes, tweets
By Scott Rogust
The Kansas City Chiefs had the worst possible luck in terms of their wide receiver depth chart this season. After making countless additions this past offseason, the Chiefs have already seen Marquise "Hollywood" Brown and Rashee Rice get sidelined for the rest of the regular season due to injuries. But a hamstring injury to JuJu Smith-Schuster pushed the Chiefs to make a deal ahead of the trade deadline to add a big name to their passing attack.
Days before the trade deadline, the Chiefs negotiated a trade with the Tennessee Titans to acquire wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for a conditional 2025 fifth-round pick. The Chiefs were no strangers to Hopkins, as they were linked to him in free agency. Now, they have him to help with their push to a Super Bowl three-peat.
While Hopkins was eased into the offense in Week 8, that wasn't the case for Week 9 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In fact, it looked like Hopkins was on the Chiefs all season based on his first half play.
In the second quarter, with the Chiefs trailing 7-3, quarterback Patrick Mahomes heaved a deep pass to Hopkins, who was surrounded by multiple Buccaneers defenders. Hopkins extended his arms and was able to haul in the pass for a 35-yard gain.
DeAndre Hopkins shows he is a serious threat in Chiefs passing attack in Week 9
If you needed more proof of how incredible that catch was by Hopkins, NFL Next Gen Stats says that Mahomes' pass had a 12.3 percent completion probability.
To cap things off, Hopkins hauled in a one-yard catch in the back of the end zone to record his first touchdown with the team and gave them a 10-7 lead. How did Hopkins celebrate this accomplishment? Why, by performing the famous dance from the film "Remember the Titans."
Let's take a look at some of the reactions on social media with how well Hopkin is playing immediately after leaving the Titans.
By halftime, Hopkins had recevied the second-most targets from Mahomes with six, behind Travis Kelce's seven. Hopkins hauled in all six of those throws from Mahomes for 66 yards and a touchdown. This was quite the improvement from his Chiefs debut in Week 8, where he hauled in two-of-three targets for 29 yards.
In just his second game with the Chiefs, Hopkins is looking like a legitimate passing attack threat for everyone of their opponents the rest of the season. For fans of teams in the AFC, they are probably sarcastically saying to themselves, "Thanks a lot, Titans."