Question of the week: Is a DeAndre Hopkins trade off the table for the Cowboys?

Mar 29, 2023 - 1:00 PM

The offseason is well underway and surprisingly enough, the Cowboys are off to one of the busiest starts across the NFL. They have added depth to necessary positions and highlighted the incoming class with two trades, one for Stephon Gilmore and the other for Brandin Cooks. Although both trades were not only welcomed, but encouraged, the latter of the two leaves fans pondering one thing; is adding another wide receiver this off-season, specifically DeAndre Hopkins, off the table?

Earlier this week, reports came out about Hopkins being able to seek a trade from the Arizona Cardinals.

Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins continues to be the focal point of trade talk. He now has permission to talk to other teams.

Via Albert Breer of SI.com, Hopkins has received permission to shop his contract elsewhere.

Hopkins has a non-guaranteed compensation package of $19.45 million in 2023. He turns 31 on June 6.

Hopkins, who not long ago was the highest-paid receiver in the NFL, has slipped as the market exploded. And while the market will still generate major dollars for the best of the best, the availability of young, healthy receivers makes it hard to justify giving significant dollars to aging players with injury issues and, in Hopkins’s case, a six-game PED suspension last year.

Just a day later, Jonathan Gannon, new Cardinals head coach, made it public that he expects Hopkins to be on the Cardinals for this upcoming season.

Two weeks before he’ll begin working with his new players for the first time, first-year Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said he’s under the assumption that wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will be a Cardinal despite trade rumors.

“Right now, I’m operating under the premise that Hop’s our starting X [receiver] and people are going to have to defend him,” Gannon said Tuesday morning from the NFL’s annual meeting at the Arizona Biltmore.

Hopkins has been the center of trade speculation because his cap hit in 2023 will be $30.75 million to accompany a $19.45 million salary. The Cardinals currently have about $21 million in cap space.

“He’s been great, and I’m looking forward to getting to work with him, too,” Gannon said. “So, everyone that has a jersey right now, I’m looking forward to coaching and fitting them all in together.”

So, a Hopkins trade for any team may be in doubt, especially for the Cowboys, who seem confident in a Michael Gallup rebound year and Jalen Tolbert’s progression from year one to two.

Even if it is still “on the table,” which is doubtful, is it necessary at this point? Brandin Cooks has at least 1,000 yards in each NFL season in which he has played every game. CeeDee Lamb proved himself as a top-10 wide receiver, especially late in the season, going for 100+ yards in three of the last four regular season games.

An eventual Hopkins trade would give the Cowboys the deepest receiver room in the NFL, but again, after the Cowboys restructured Gallup earlier in March, that solidified their confidence in him to be a consistent provider to the offense.

For now, especially with the draft just about a month away, the hopes of a Hopkins trade are bleak.