Name: Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on trade to Arizona: 'I feel like I'm home'
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Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on trade to Arizona: 'I feel like I'm home'

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsIt’s no secret Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray has been in Steve Keim’s ear, constantly pestering the general manager throughout the offseason about why he should draft Murray’s former college teammate at Oklahoma, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.“Well, Kyler has lobbied for CeeDee Lamb, he’s lobbied for four or five offensive linemen, a running back and a tight end,” Keim said Thursday. “He hasn’t once said anything to me about a defensive player, so I’m not sure he’s a guy I’m going to hang my hat on when it comes to draft day.”Keim might be interested to know that Murray, the NFL’s reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year, has a new ally in his support of drafting Lamb. And it’s none other than DeAndre Hopkins, the team’s new No.1 wide receiver, who said he’d welcome the addition of Lamb with open arms.“CeeDee Lamb is obviously a great receiver. I’ve been hearing a lot of comparisons between him and myself. So, if he’s being compared to me, I would love to have that guy on my team,” Hopkins told reporters during a conference call on Friday.And you probably thought an offense featuring Murray, Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk and Kenyan Drake was intriguing enough. Imagine what it might look like with two versions of DeAndre Hopkins – the real thing and perhaps the second coming.With Lamb or without him, Hopkins said he’s fascinated to see how good the Cardinals’ offense can be in 2020. He said he already has a good feel for it just by watching countless highlights of the team from a year ago, adding, “I think I’ve watched Kyler’s highlights more than I’ve ever watched my own highlights.”Hopkins, named first-team All-Pro for a third straight season after catching 104 passes for 1,165 yards and seven touchdowns in 2019, has been in constant contact with Murray since his trade from the Texans to the Cardinals went down more than a month ago. They’ve been essential conversations, too, so he can pick up all the variations of Kliff Kingsbury’s offense as soon as possible.MORE:“Communication is going to be key,” Hopkins said. “That’s something we’re working on now. Me and Kyler are going over the offense. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to be a big problem because we’re professional athletes and I’ve been in the NFL for seven years. I’ve played under two different offenses so I’m familiar with offensive changes and I think it will be pretty smooth.”As for negotiations regarding a restructured contract with the Cardinals that could pay him anywhere from $16-20 million a year over the next three seasons, Hopkins, 27, prefers not to comment. It’s between his agent, Todd France, and the Cardinals, he said.It wasn’t clear if he plans to fully participate in virtual offseason workouts once those begin on Monday, but if his ongoing discussions with Murray are any indication, it seems unlikely Hopkins will stage any type of holdout until he gets a new deal.“Like I said, that’s between my agent and the team,” Hopkins said. “I play football for a living and I’m going to do everything I can to catch up with the team when that day comes and when I can.”Interestingly, it was the Cardinals’ Fitzgerald who talked Hopkins out of staging a potentially lengthy holdout in Houston a few years ago before he agreed to a five-year, $81 million deal with the Texans.“I talked to Fitz about, ‘What do you think about this? Should I do this?,’ ” Hopkins recalled. “He basically said, ‘Just go back. Even if you sit out one or two days, you don’t want to be that guy because your play is going to speak for itself.’ ”Since entering the league as a first-round pick out of Clemson in 2013, Hopkins ranks third in the NFL in receptions (632), third in receiving yards (8,602) and second in touchdown catches (54). And yet despite that type of production, to hear him tell it, it wasn’t a surprise at all to learn he was being traded by the Texans.“I kind of heard the rumor talks about being traded really last year, at the beginning of the year,” Hopkins said. “… It wasn’t a big surprise to me. After the year, I was prepared for it.”MORE:Hopkins was working out in Los Angeles with fellow NFL wide receiver Julio Jones of the Atlanta Falcons when the rumors got hot and heavy. He said he talked to some friends who were in the know and they indicated to him right away that the Cardinals were “one team that is probably on the radar.”“And I was very excited about it, actually,” he said, “because of what Arizona has been building – having a young QB, a young team and also having veterans. … I see myself fitting in very, very well. I know what I bring to the table. Those guys know what they bring to the table. I feel like we’re definitely going to push each other to make the team better.”Hopkins said he was impressed by the number of Arizona players who reached out to him once the trade was announced, calling the welcome “overwhelming” and saying, “I feel like I’m home even though I haven’t even played a snap out there yet.” And it wasn’t just the veterans who called and texted, either. Hopkins said he was surprised at the number of young players who eagerly rushed to welcome him aboard.“I can tell they’re hungry and ready to play, ready to win,” he said. So is Hopkins, who has been to the playoffs four times in the past five years even though the Cardinals haven’t made it to the postseason since 2015.“I always put the team’s expectations first,” he said. “My expectations for myself is to master the offense, first and foremost. That’s going to help everyone. This is a new offense for me, so that’s my first test. And then obviously, to be at the level I’ve been at for the last three, four, five years. That comes with training and I hold myself to a high standard always.“My team expectations are the same as anyone who plays football. I hope that expectation is to win a championship. Team expectations is the division championship, the conference championship and the big championship, which should be anybody’s mindset who plays football.”The last time the Texans played the Cardinals, in 2017, there was a famous video clip of then-Arizona defensive backs coach Kevin Ross walking up to Hopkins and telling him, “You’re the best in the game.” Without so much as a blink, Hopkins told Ross, “I know.”And yes, Hopkins still feels the same way today.“I will always feel like that,” he said. “That’s the chip and the way I play the game. I don’t feel like I would never tell myself that I’m second-best in anything I do. I feel I have some stats to back that up, but that’s my mindset. Yeah, that always will be my mindset.”View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsIt’s no secret Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray has been in Steve Keim’s ear, constantly pestering the general manager throughout the offseason about why he should draft Murray’s former college teammate at Oklahoma, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.“Well, Kyler has lobbied for CeeDee Lamb, he’s lobbied for four or five offensive linemen, a running back and a tight end,” Keim said Thursday. “He hasn’t once said anything to me about a defensive player, so I’m not sure he’s a guy I’m going to hang my hat on when it comes to draft day.”Keim might be interested to know...

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Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on trade to Arizona: 'I feel like I'm home'

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