DeAndre Hopkins Rumors: Chiefs Received Permission to Discuss Trade Before Release

The Kansas City Chiefs "received permission" from the Arizona Cardinals to contact veteran wideout DeAndre Hopkins earlier this offseason and even spoke to him before the draft, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB.

Breer added that Kansas City "likes him, but the deal they gave Donovan Smith makes [the money] tough."

Hopkins, 30, was surprisingly released by the Cardinals on Friday after a trade for the wideout apparently didn't materialize. That will save the Cardinals $8.15 million this upcoming season off his $30.75 million cap hit, leaving them with $22.6 million in dead cap.

Per Josh Weinfuss of ESPN, the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots were "among the teams reportedly interested in pursuing Hopkins."

It remains to be seen if those teams will bid for his services in free agency.

He would make sense for a Chiefs team currently heading into the season with a wideout corps that includes Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore and Justin Watson.

Not exactly an elite bunch, especially after JuJu Smith-Schuster signed with the Patriots this offseason and Mecole Hardman joined the New York Jets, though tight end Travis Kelce obviously remains one of the most dangerous weapons in football.

Hopkins remains a major threat on the outside, catching 64 passes for 717 yards and three touchdowns in just nine games last season after a suspension and injuries cost him nearly half the 2022 campaign.

For his career he's averaged 5.8 receptions, 77.9 yards and 0.4 touchdowns per game, which translates to 98 receptions for 1,324 yards and eight touchdowns in a 17-game season.

If the Chiefs landed a playmaker like Hopkins, the rest of the NFL would be pretty annoyed, if not downright trembling. Adding a talent to the defending champions would be unfair.