He's going there to F* with him prior to coming back to Houston. I have no idea what I'm talking about and making things up
The Cleveland Browns seems like it makes the most sense. I don't know their cap situation, but clearly they have no problem with players that bring some controversy with them. Part of me hopes he goes there and assists in things blowing up dramatically this season, improving the Texans draft picks. But it probably won't happen.
The Browns will definitely have more cap space than the Texans, I think they just cleared up another 10 mil with post June 1st cuts, so I agree the Browns are a much better option for Nuk since he needs to make as much money as possible in the last few years in the league he has left. The Texans could free up some more space, but right now if you factor in the contracts the rookies are going to get, they have only like 5 mil in cap space to play with.
Texans can back load the contract if they want and give him more money in year 2. They will have a **** load of space next season.
They could, but his timeline doesn't really make sense for the Texans and I don't think they want to be on the hook for a lot of money to a guy at the end of his productive career on an up and coming team.....and that's not even touching on the non-football reasons they might not want to bring him in. It would be great from a PR standpoint, the fans would love it, but that's really the ONLY reason to want Nuk back at this point.
Remember, our 1st next year depends on Cleveland. We should want him to land anywhere else or he could help them make the playoffs. I’m hoping he lands in Baltimore with the Bills apparently out (if he doesn’t come back to Houston if both sides want that).
If these teams are truly out on Hopkins, I think that's a warning sign for us. I loved D-Hop when he was here, but I think that time is gone. Coach D is building something special and I'm not sure Hopkins will fit into the culture. I wish him well and hope he signs with someone in the NFC or a CLE opponent like BAL.
I wonder if the Texans may be a little dubious in signing Hopkins because of the fear that Stroud might rely on him too much as a safety valve and hinder his development. A lot of people felt like that happend with Watson.
As well they should be. "We sucked so much at getting our QB receivers to play with that we had to throw the one good one we had into the wood chipper to prevent over-dependency."
I agree. I just think it’s funny hearing that now. I don’t think that’s the reason it’s taking a while to find a team. I think he’s hungry for money even at an advanced age and coming off suspension and injury
This is pretty telling. Demeco says nothing is off the table but if they had any interest at all they would have reached out to Hopkins or his team by now. I think it's pretty safe to say he doesn't end up in Houston.
It *is* worth noting..... Watson's best year was the season after the Hopkins trade. The issue, at least in theory, is legitimate: if a QB is overly-relying on a single WR, it makes - again, in theory - defending/stopping the offense significantly easier - *especially* if there isn't a viable 2nd or 3rd option. Look, for instance, what the Giants were able to do to Minnesota in the playoffs. Belichick and the Patriots did this effectively with Andre Johnson, too. He just took him out of the game and the Texans' offense was significantly more pedestrian.
On top of that, it's an issue when the WR you become overly reliant on is over the hill. Doing it with a receiver still in the prime might be okay, but look at what happened to Andre Johnson when he left the Texans, he went from 146 targets in 15 games to 77 in 16 games the next season to 22 in 8 games the season after that, to being out of the league entirely. He didn't deserve the targets he got here his last season, he was over the hill, but his reputation here led to QB's forcing it anyway. It could be the same with Nuk.
