From zuk (@zuk60746497): ’s
Zuk, there is a lot to consider here for teams picking up the phone and calling new Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort. And these things, good as DeAndre Hopkins has been over the last 10 seasons, will probably conspire to drive down his trade value.
Among those things …
• He’s hurt a lot—he’s played in 19 of 34 games the last two seasons, after showing a lot of fight in battling through a series of injuries to miss just two games over his first eight seasons as a pro. Add to that the mileage of 853 career catches, and it’s hard to imagine that trend will reverse itself in 2023.
• The injury issue also has limited Hopkins severely when it comes to his ability to practice during the week. If you have a strong veteran roster that’s won, you can manage that. But if you’re younger, or you haven’t won yet, it’s harder to have one of your best players missing during long stretches of practice weeks, both from a functional and a culture standpoint.
• He’s due $19.45 million in cash next year, and $14.92 million in 2024. And that’s assuming he wouldn’t use a trade to try to leverage more cash off the team dealing for him. Hopkins has a no-trade clause in his contract with which he could play that game.
• He’ll be 31 years old on opening day. On the surface, that doesn’t seem disqualifying for a receiver. But that’s how old A.J. Green was when he went from Cincinnati to Arizona, and he’s had just 78 catches for 1,084 yards and five touchdowns in 31 games since. And Julio Jones was 31 for his last year in Atlanta, which is when injuries started to take their toll on his production (he has just 106 catches over the last three years, that one included).
So add that up, and I think it’s going to be hard for Ossenfort to get great value for Hopkins, maybe even to the point where keeping him is a better idea than dealing him. As it stands right now, if I had to ballpark it, I’d say a Day 2 pick would be what Arizona would get in return in a trade.
