Texans’ Hopkins motivated by a lack of respect
We marvel at Deshaun WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.VA. — Watson’s magic and wait for his true arrival.
We break down everything Bill O’Brien does and says into small, debatable pieces.
We wonder if Jadeveon Clowney is going to be a Texan into the next decade.
We still treat J.J. Watt — who’s only played in eight games the last two seasons — like Houston’s biggest sports star.
For a team that went 4-12 last season, the Texans are loaded with franchise names. Somehow, DeAndre Hopkins gets overlooked. Despite setting a franchise record with 13 receiving touchdowns during another chaotic year for the Texans, which again featured multiple starting quarterbacks and lingering front-office drama. Despite the fact that through the initial five seasons of his pro career, No. 10 — 26 years old and entering his athletic prime — has more receiving yards (5,865), receptions (413) and touchdowns (36) than famous No. 80 did at this point in his Texans career.
Earlier this month, Andre Johnson said he believed Hopkins is “arguably the best in the game,” when compared to all other current NFL receivers.
Standing tall on an empty field among the deep-green West Virginia mountains on another cool, breezy day near The Greenbrier, the Texans’ best and most dependable offensive player since 2014 one-upped his former teammate and football mentor.
“I definitely feel like I’m underrated. I think I’m the best receiver in the NFL,” said Hopkins as his team went
through the first week of training camp more than 1,200 miles away from Kirby Drive.
Five summers ago, a 21-year-old Hopkins was adamant that he didn’t want to talk about or draw attention to himself, because he hadn’t done anything in the NFL.
Five summers later, the man who has collected footballs from so many Texans QBs doesn’t hesitate to place himself at the top of the league. And you know what? The humble but highly competitive Hopkins is right.
NFL’s Top 100 slight
The NFL’s Top 100. Voted on by players. Constantly teased, promoted and televised by the league’s station. The definition of a $14 billion athletic organization filling up empty space in between the long wait that separates the Super Bowl from Week 1. Hopkins doesn’t just pay attention to the annual list. It drives him.
And it should. Hopkins’ name was completely invisible on the Top 100 last year. In June, he placed 13th — but Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown (No. 2) and Atlanta’s Julio Jones (No. 4) led all pro receivers and both cracked the top five.
Some would laugh off a meaningless list that is simply made for TV and has nothing to do with All-Pro or Hall of Fame worthiness. Hopkins has been feeding off perceived slights since his teenage days. Being No. 13 after leading the NFL in receiving TDs and targets (176), and ranking second in receptions of 20 yards or more (24) is another personal reminder that the king of one-handed catches is proving himself to the outside world.
Always the underdog
“That’s definitely part of my makeup. It’s been like that my whole career, man, since high school, college,” said Hopkins, who was the 27th overall pick of the 2013 draft after his junior season at Clemson. “Even in the NFL, getting drafted first round ... I wasn’t top five. I had Tavon Austin (No. 8, St. Louis) drafted ahead of me — that gave me a lot of motivation because I knew my work.
“I’ve always been the underdog, so I’ve always felt like I’ve had to have that chip on my shoulder and ... I still am the underdog, I feel like. Ranked 13th in the NFL and you have guys like Julio Jones, who doesn’t even finish a football season and has three touchdowns, and I’m breaking a touchdown record, franchise record, and these guys are still getting accolades more than me. So I definitely think it’s a popularity thing about who knows who. But I don’t really care to know who.”
That doesn’t mean he forgets and moves on. Last season, Hopkins kept stories about players ranked higher than him in his NRG Stadium locker. During the same season that he signed a five-year, $81 million contract extension, a brilliant 1,378-yard campaign was partly fueled by all the names standing in his way.
“I had that article in my locker the whole year, man, just to look at every day and remind myself,” he said. “It’s just little motivation . ... But it’s definitely something I feel like I’ve always had and I will keep, even if they — which they probably never will — say I’m the best receiver in the NFL.”
Hopkins’ first NFL touchdown: Week 2 in 2013.
A game-winner against Tennessee in overtime from Matt Schaub at NRG. Also the Texans’ last victory of Hopkins’ rookie season and the final time that Schaub won a game in red and blue.
Career trajectory
Hopkins’ next TD came from Case Keenum. Then it was Ryan Fitzpatrick. Next: Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, Hoyer, T.J. Yates, Hoyer, Brandon Weeden and Brock Osweiler. Finally, Watson.
“I feel like my career is going on the up and up,” said Hopkins, who caught seven TDs from the Texans’ new franchise quarterback in seven games. “The organization probably did me the biggest favor in drafting Deshaun Watson, and I think that’s going to help my career tremendously.”
Things got tense at times with Johnson at the end of his Hall of Fame-worthy 12-year run with the Texans, as the franchise’s greatest player — a man who sacrificed so much for his team and dealt with so much losing during the early expansion years — became frustrated with an uncertain future.
Even with all the rotating names and two bad years (2-14, 4-12) bookending three roller-coaster 9-7 seasons, Hopkins was patient as the Texans kept transitioning from QB to QB, and has never publicly thrown his organization or a quarterback under the bus.
“I never will,” he said. “Because I feel like that’s on me and I feel like that’s why I am the best receiver and that’s a challenge to me to do what I do every day.
“Because I have those challenges up against me and I’ve never been the one to complain. My mom is blind and she wakes up and never complains. So for me to wake up and complain about what guy, what professional quarterback is throwing me the ball, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
As Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni watched the end of Texans practice Saturday and O’Brien prepared to speak with the media, Hopkins was engaged in a private conversation with Watson on a side field. Soon, a smooth 22-yearold arm that captures the Texans’ hope for the future was connecting with soft 26-yearold hands in the left corner of the end zone. TD after TD after TD, with the afternoon sun rising and the West Virginia breeze blowing.
“The chemistry that we can have and the things we can do, man, I really don’t think anybody can sit here and put a limit on it, honestly,” Hopkins said.
Devoted Texan
The Texans didn’t have a crystal-clean offseason. The AFC South is suddenly stacked. And while there is much promise in the healthy unification of the team’s biggest names, there are major question marks surrounding everything from the state of the offensive line to the team’s roster depth.
Hopkins is asked for his thoughts about the only pro organization for which he has played.
“Even though we had a lot of controversy last year with things off the field, this team, it’s a team that sticks together,” said Hopkins, who credited O’Brien for always keeping the Texans moving forward. “The veteran guys like J.J., like Kareem (Jackson) and ( Johnathan Joseph), those guys are an example to young guys like me.
“Just to see those guys stick it through and want to be in this organization. ... You talk to other players in the NFL; you kind of get a sense of what other organizations are like. So just hearing other teams talk about — not saying anything bad about ’em — but I’m very appreciative to be here, in this organization.”
Which leads to the next question. Hopkins answers it without pausing.
“I want to be a lifetime Texan,” he said. “I don’t want to be one of those guys that bounce from teams or because my play isn’t where it is. Larry Fitzgerald is like my mentor, so I feel like what he’s doing, that’s an example I feel like all good wide receivers should want to do.”