3 reasons the Cleveland Browns should avoid trading for DeAndre Hopkins

The Cleveland Browns need to stay away from DeAndre Hopkins

The Cleveland Browns need to upgrade the receiver position, that’s not something that is up for debate. The Browns have a solid, borderline Pro Bowl-type player in Amari Cooper, and then? Yikes. Donovan Peoples-Jones is a good third option but he’s not consistent enough to be a starter for the Browns, but he’s far better than his sixth-round selection would have led you to believe he could be.

The Browns have not had any success drafting receivers besides Peoples-Jones, and now the team is looking at some possible upgrades to the position. The one player who should not be considered, at all, is DeAndre Hopkins. Maybe Bill O’Brien knew what he was doing after all.

The current receiver for the Arizona Cardinals was traded to the team from the Houston Texans in 2020, and immediately everyone thought the Texans were clowns for giving him up for next to nothing. Maybe they were, but Hopkins has missed 15 games over the last two years due to a PED suspension and a torn MCL.

Does anyone think those two things aren’t going to impact him going forward? He’s a fast-enough receiver, but he posted nearly a 4.6 40-time at the combine, and now at 30, and after a major knee injury, it’s fair to wonder what Hopkins looks like.

That’s the kind of guessing the Browns don’t need to get involved with.

Three reasons the Cleveland Browns need to avoid trading for DeAndre Hopkins

Age and injury

At 30 years old, and after a major knee injury, it’s fair to wonder what Hopkins has left. The thing about skilled position players is that they fall off fast and oftentimes without warning. Look at Jarvis Landry. Many didn’t believe his hip injury was going to affect him (we did), and he’s not been the same since the surgery after the 2019 season. A 27-year-old Hopkins, you trade for. A 30-year-old Hopkins, with a bad wheel? Naw.

Declining productivity

You can bring up the injury and suspension as reasons his productivity declined, and that’d be fair and honest. I’m not arguing the “why” it declined, I’m pointing out that it has. First, he tore up his knee, and now it’s because he took ostarine. He claims it was accidental ingestion and that he doesn’t even take vitamins, but how would he accidentally take ostarine if you’re naturopathic, as Hopkins has said? Well, he tore up his knee before he popped, so one theory could be that Hopkins took ostarine to help recover from the MCL tear. But that’s speculation. Speculation goes hand in hand with his declining play.

Terrible contract

The Browns will be paying nearly $70 million, about one-third of the team’s salary cap, to just two names in Deshaun Watson and Amari Cooper. Hopkins is carrying a $30 million cap hit ($19.4 million base). The Browns can’t afford Hopkins at that price. And restructuring contracts doesn’t help things, it just pushes the money down a few years. It still has to be paid, it just becomes the next GM’s problem instead.