With Hopkins gone, what’s next?
Cobb signing fills one hole, but draft has impressive depth at wide receiver
Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly’s job got more difficult Monday when All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins was traded to Arizona.
Kelly is calling plays for the Texans for the first time, and he won’t have quarterback Deshaun Watson’s go-to receiver to rely on.
Bill O’Brien had Hopkins in his first six seasons, and he watched the receiver grow into one of the NFL’s best. Now, O’Brien the general manager is under a lot of pressure to find a replacement to help O’Brien the coach, who showed a lot of faith in Kelly to turn over the play-calling duties for next season.
There’s no way the Texans are a better offense or a better team without Hopkins, who’s coming off a season in which he caught 104 passes for 1,165 yards (11.2 average per catch) and seven touchdowns, earning first-team All-Pro recognition for a second straight season.
The deal brought Trader Bill the running back he wanted, David Johnson, as well as a secondround draft choice this year and a fourth-round pick in 2021. O’Brien included the Texans’ fourthround pick this year in the trade.
The Texans now have nine draft choices, including two in the second and fourth rounds. If you think O’Brien is through wheeling and dealing, you’ve been living on Pluto.
O’Brien was looking for a replacement for Carlos Hyde, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards for the first time in his career. The Texans moved away from Hyde after he rejected their offer.
Johnson, 28, is 6-1, 224 and an outstanding receiver. Last season, Johnson was healthy and played behind Kenyan Drake in Kliff Kingsbury’s first season as the Cardinals’ coach. Johnson rushed for 345 yards (3.7 average) and two touchdowns. He caught 36 passes for 370 yards (10.3) and four touchdowns.
In 2018, Johnson ran for 940 yards and seven touchdowns and caught 50 passes for 446 yards and three touchdowns.
Obviously, O’Brien believes strongly in Johnson and his ability to step in for Hyde and complement Duke Johnson. With the Johnsons and Hyde, O’Brien has made three trades for backs in the last eight months.
The Texans know they’ll have a Johnsonand-Johnson backfield, and O’Brien added free agent receiver Randall Cobb later on Monday. They could use one of their second-round picks on another receiver. Or perhaps O’Brien will package picks to move back into the first round for a receiver.
This is a deep and talented draft for receivers. With the 40th overall pick the Texans received in the trade, O’Brien should be able to get an impressive prospect to play with Will Fuller, Kenny Stills and Cobb.
Cobb, 29, signed a three-year contract for $27 million. He is a solid veteran receiver but not nearly as good as Hopkins.
Because they want to sign Watson, offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and inside linebacker Zach Cunningham to extensions, the Texans weren’t going to re-do Hopkins’ contract that has three years remaining.
Second-year Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray must be doing cartwheels to get a receiver of Hopkins’ caliber. Not only has Hopkins been outstanding on the field, but his durability has been extraordinary.
Hopkins, who turns 28 in June, missed one game because of an injury in his first seven seasons. That kind of reliability — not to mention that kind of productivity — is doing to be hard to replace.
The five-year, $81-million extension Hopkins signed before the 2017 season included $49 million guaranteed, most in NFL history for a receiver. Unless the Cardinals give him a new contract, Hopkins will make base salaries of $12.5 million, $13.5 million and $13.915 million in the last three years of his deal.
In the past, the Texans had rejected offers for Hopkins. They considered him too valuable to what they hoped to accomplish. That changed this week.
Owner Cal McNair signed off on the trade. Now he’s entrusting O’Brien to make decisions that eventually will make the offense better. In the short term, at least, that’s going to be very difficult to do.