The Kansas City Chiefs have finalized a trade for Tennessee Titans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, the team announced Thursday.
Hopkins, 32, will help strengthen a receiving corps that lost Laci Rice, Marquise Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster to injuries.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Chiefs will send a fifth-round draft pick and a fourth-round pick if Kansas City makes it to the Super Bowl and Hopkins plays 60% of his games as a Chief. There is a possibility that it will happen. Tennessee will also pay Hopkins $2.5 million.
Hopkins has 15 catches for 173 yards on a Titans team that has won just one game this season and has struggled at quarterback. Hopkins injured his knee during training camp, but did not require surgery. He had 75 catches for 1,057 yards last season at Tennessee.
Hopkins is the third notable receiver to be traded in the past two weeks. Last week, the Las Vegas Raiders traded Davante Adams to the New York Jets, and the Cleveland Browns traded Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills. The Los Angeles Rams have also reportedly begun trade talks with the team for former Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp.
The Chiefs, two-time Super Bowl champions with the best record in the NFL at 6-0, were on the market for a receiver to help quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Brown is not expected to play in the regular season after undergoing shoulder surgery last month due to an injury sustained during the preseason. Rice also underwent surgery to repair the posterolateral corner of his right knee two weeks ago and is not expected to play for the remainder of the season. He was injured in the win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Smith-Schuster missed Sunday’s win over the San Francisco 49ers with a hamstring injury and has already been ruled out for the Chiefs’ Week 8 game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
This is the third consecutive season the Chiefs have made a mid-season trade for a wide receiver. In 2022, the Chiefs sent a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick for Kadarius Toney to the New York Giants. Although he is no longer on the roster, he made a crucial punt return in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles in February 2023.
Last season, the Chiefs traded a sixth-round pick to the Jets for Mecole Hardman and a seventh-round pick. Hardman left the Chiefs to sign with the Jets as a free agent in the offseason. Hardman caught the winning pass in overtime of Super Bowl III and re-signed with the Chiefs this offseason.
