If you’re hopeful of a homecoming for DeAndre Hopkins, you may want to temper your expectations a bit.
With the Central, S.C. native and Clemson University product still out on the open market, Carolina Panthers fans may still be trying to connect the dots. Their team needs a No. 1 wideout, they have the second-most salary cap space in the NFL and they even have a few Arizona connections—including Hopkins’ former receivers coach Shawn Jefferson.
But two of the most connected team reporters think those dots are best left alone.
The first is Joe Person of The Athletic, who wrote the following about Hopkins in his latest mailbag feature:
Other than the fact that Hopkins played at Clemson, I just don’t see this as a fit for either side. Hopkins wants to go to a Super Bowl contender (the Bills and Chiefs reportedly have interest), and the Panthers aren’t there yet.
From the Panthers’ perspective, Fitterer has already made several moves through free agency and the draft to reconstruct the receivers in the wake of DJ Moore’s departure. And my sense is there’s not much interest in forking over a sizable chunk of money — Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer predicted Hopkins will get about half of the $19.45 million he was set to make in Arizona, plus incentives — for an aging wideout who missed nearly half of the Cardinals’ games in the past two seasons, including six for a PED suspension.
Then, Darin Gantt of Panthers.com expressed a similar sentiment while sorting out his mailbag—opining that if the Panthers are going to fork over that type of money, it’ll be going towards the other side of the ball:
But Hopkins has already said he’s not particularly interested in playing with a young quarterback, so that would seemingly take the Panthers out of the running anyway. But I’m not sure it made sense otherwise. If they were going to spend real money on a veteran free agent, it would probably be an outside linebacker, so I probably wouldn’t have put this team on the destination list.
As for the teams who may be on the destination list, oddsmakers currently favor a handful of contenders over Carolina including the Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs.