The Tennessee Titans have made drastic changes to their receiving corps this season, signing Tyler Boyd and Calvin Ridley to team up with DeAndre Hopkins.
Hopkins, who turns 32 next month, caught 75 passes for 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns in his first season with Tennessee, proving he is still one of the league’s best receivers. However, he is only under contract for one more season, and with the team now at a surplus of receivers, could the team look to move on from the former All-Pro?
There’s pros and cons for the move, and the cons are pretty simple. Trading Hopkins could mean saying goodbye to the best player in your offense. He had a big impact last season and was a huge help for rookie quarterback Will Levis, so taking him away could be a huge loss. However, there are pros for the Titans to consider in a Hopkins trade.
Parting ways with Hopkins opens up the door for third-year pro Treylon Burks to have a bigger impact. Burks has one more year under contract than Hopkins, and a potential fifth-year option coming up. Trading Hopkins would allow the Titans to truly see what they have in Burks and allow them to make a sounder decision in whether to keep him or not.
The Titans also would save about $16 million in cap space by trading him, and considering how much the team has spent in free agency, this would alleviate some of the burden they have adopted. They would also acquire some draft capital in a trade, and while it probably wouldn’t be more than a Day 3 pick, it’s more than nothing. The Titans only have six picks in the 2025 draft, so moving up or acquiring an additional pick would allow the team to invest more in the future.
There are plenty of reasons for the Titans to trade Hopkins, but Pro Bowl receivers don’t grow on trees, and his impact may be more important to Tennessee than all of the reasons to trade him.
