Pursuing free-agent WR DeAndre Hopkins a risk worth taking for Titans

National Football League

Updated Jun. 8, 2023 6:57 p.m. ET

In November, Mike Vrabel made a brutally honest remark. It spread like wildfire on Titans Twitter.

Tennessee had been riding a five-game winning streak, but the most recent contest — a 17-10 victory over the divisional-rival Texans — featured 32 Derrick Henry carries. The game before that, he had 30. In fact, the superstar running back didn’t have a game of fewer than 20 carries during the hot streak.

ESPN’s Ed Werder had asked Vrabel if Henry’s workload was sustainable.

His response?

“I don’t know what else we would do,” Werder quoted Vrabel as saying. “Throw it 50 times? I mean, who the f— would we throw it to?”

That’s why the Titans’ interest in free-agent receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who will visit the team’s Nashville facility early next week, makes sense. Fewer than two months from 2023 training camp, not much has changed with Tennessee’s receiver room since Vrabel’s remarks.

The team released veteran Robert Woods as a cap casualty (an expected move), but waited until the seventh round of the draft to take a receiver (Colton Dowell, UT-Martin). In free agency, the Titans added only Chris Moore, whose career-high of 548 receiving yards came last season. Despite the need at receiver, the team has shown nonchalance in its efforts to improve at the position.

Last season, the Titans’ wide receivers combined for 1,595 receiving yards, third-fewest in the league. A.J. Brown, their former star wideout, almost reached that number by himself with the Eagles (1,496).

Hopkins would give the Titans a dynamic, outside threat to pair with second-year pro Treylon Burks, now Tennessee’s No. 1 receiver. Hopkins in 2022 had more receiving yards in nine games (717) than any single Titans player had all of last season (Woods had a team-high 527).

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The relationship component can’t be skimmed over, either. Vrabel and Titans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly were Texans assistants when Hopkins played for Houston. Kelly was Hopkins’ playercaller in the receiver’s last year in Houston in 2019, when he had 104 receptions for 1,165 yards and seven touchdowns.

The reason for pause is that Hopkins is 31 years old, and the Titans have gotten underwhelming returns on the highly touted veteran receivers they’ve invested in each of the past two years (Woods in 2022, Julio Jones in 2021). Hopkins has missed 15 games the past two seasons, including nine due to injury. Tennessee’s injuries issues are well-documented: The team used 91 players in 2021, an NFL record for a non-strike season, then used 86 last season.

The verdict

Ultimately, the Titans need Hopkins more than he needs them.

He’s a five-time Pro Bowl receiver who figures to have legitimate contenders in the mix for his services. If winning a Super Bowl is his top priority at this stage in his career, the Titans shouldn’t be his first choice. They’re breaking in a new offensive coordinator who’s tweaking the scheme with a new-look offensive line and an underwhelming cast of pass-catchers. It’s not even clear if Ryan Tannehill will finish the season as the starting quarterback.

Is that an offense Hopkins would want to play in?

“What I want is stable management upstairs. That’s something I haven’t really had the past couple years of my career coming from Houston and then to Arizona,” Hopkins said on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast last month. “[Also,] a QB who loves the game, a QB who brings everybody on board with him, not just himself but everybody around him … and a great defense. A great defense wins championships.”

But there’s a reason the Titans are the first team Hopkins is visiting. Money also talks.

According to Over The Cap, Tennessee has just $7.9 million in cap space, 25th in the league. But the team could get creative to bring Hopkins into the fold, whether it’s restructuring the contract of a player already under contract (outside linebacker Harold Landry, who carries an $18.8 million cap hit for 2023, could be a candidate) or the actual structuring of the contract for the receiver. Odell Beckham Jr.‘s deal with the Ravens could be a benchmark. Baltimore gave him a one-year deal worth up to $18 million, including $15 million guaranteed, with four void years attached, reducing his 2023 cap hit to just over $3.9 million.

If the money makes sense and Hopkins’ interest is legitimate, general manager Ran Carthon should push to make it happen. Even if not the player he was in his prime, Hopkins would make the Titans’ passing game more respectable and take pressure off Burks. It’s clear that Tennessee hopes to remain competitive in 2023, even as it has retooled its roster.

Hopkins could also serve as a veteran voice for the team’s receivers and offer pointers to its young defensive backs.

“He would be a great mentor,” Burks said Wednesday. “I’ve watched D-Hop since I was younger. One of my favorite players. He just carries himself the right way. And then his game on the field just speaks for itself.”

Hopkins makes sense for the Titans.

The question is: Do the Titans make sense for him?

“The first thing is that we want players to want to be here,” Vrabel said. “If that works out, you go on to the next step.”

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.

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