The DeAndre Hopkins sweepstakes are heating up

When teams gather in Indianapolis during the NFL Combine, chatter begins, and the chatter around DeAndre Hopkins could be heating up.  The NFL is shortly going to witness a major trade, as future Hall of Fame wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins’ future in the league could be coming clear.

The Arizona Cardinals are in an interesting spot at the moment.  They are in a bit of rebuild with a new head coach and general manager, and they also have to deal with Kyler Murray’s torn ACL.

The biggest decision they will make this offseason is who they decide to trade Hopkins to, and there are a few teams who are apparently involved the most thus far:

For varying reasons, each of these teams being able to land the stud WR would be huge news.

Depending on other compensation included in the deal and perhaps who the Cardinals don’t want to trade Hopkins to, a new team could jump in and the compensation could look a lot different than this tweet indicates.

Let’s quickly breakdown each team.

The New England Patriots do not have a different maker on the outside, and between Hopkins’ connections with new Patriots’ OC Bill O’Brien, who traded him to the Cardinals, a fit there could make sense.

Mac Jones does need a playmaker on the outside to further help his growth.

The New York Giants went 9-7-1 in the regular season and won a playoff game.  They are in dire need of a wide receiver and I’m sure the fit with Brian Daboll and Daniel Jones in New York would be just fine for DeAndre Hopkins.

The Giants look poised to extend Jones and adding Hopkins to that offense would add a new wrinkle.

The Kansas City Chiefs being able to acquire Hopkins would seem unfair.  They shipped off Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins last offseason and followed that up by winning the Super Bowl.  They do need some help at WR even though their offense did not skip a beat.

I do wonder if the Cardinals would trade Hopkins to the Super Bowl champions.  It is a valid discussion to have.  Would they want to make the rich richer?

We’ll see what happens, but those three teams all seem to be out front right now.