Winners and Losers From DeAndre Hopkins Trade to Chiefs Before NFL Deadline
With just under two weeks until the NFL's November 5 trade deadline, the wide receiver market remains active. On Wednesday morning, the league's last undefeated team made its play on a prolific pass-catcher.
According to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport, the Kansas City Chiefs are finalizing a deal to acquire DeAndre Hopkins from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick that can become a fourth-rounder.
The move comes roughly a week after the New York Jets acquired Davante Adams and the Buffalo Bills acquired Amari Cooper. Like those trades, the Hopkins deal could have a massive impact on the NFL landscape and the playoff race.
Of course, not everyone will come out a winner.
Here, we'll examine the biggest winners and losers from the Hopkins trade and what the move could mean for each of them in the future.
Winners: Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs
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Kansas City always felt like the most logical landing spot for Hopkins if the wide receiver was moved. According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler (h/t Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari), Kansas City "badly" wanted to sign Hopkins last offseason.
Now the Chiefs get their man, and it couldn't come at a better time. Marquise Brown (shoulder) and Rashee Rice (knee) are both on injured reserve, while JuJu Smith-Schuster is dealing with a hamstring injury.
While Hopkins may not be productive as he once was—or as potent a pass-catcher as Adams and Cooper are now—he's still a big (6'1", 212 lbs), dependable target who will provide much-needed help on the perimeter.
Adams and Cooper were acquired to be new No. 1 targets for Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen, respectively. However, Hopkins won't need to fill that role for Patrick Mahomes. Chiefs coach Andy Reid is a wizard of adaptation, and his ever-evolving offense is designed to create mismatches and get the football to whoever happens to be open.
Hopkins provides the Chiefs with another weapon whom defenses can't ignore. That will help open things up for the likes of Xavier Worthy, Mecole Hardman and Travis Kelce. It should also help open up the ground game while giving Mahomes another reliable read.
That's great for Mahomes, who is having a down year statistically (82.5 passer rating). It's also great for the Chiefs, who are battling to become the NFL's first back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl champions.
Loser: Titans QB Will Levis
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Hopkins hasn't put up strong numbers this year (15 catches, 173 yards, 1 TD), but Tennessee's offense has underwhelmed as a whole. The Titans rank 31st in net yards per pass attempt and 32nd in passing yards.
Part of the issue has been second-year quarterback Will Levis. The Kentucky product has been turnover-prone (7 INTs, 3 lost fumbles) and inefficient (70.7 QB rating). He was inactive because of a shoulder injury in Week 7 but is expected to return to the lineup when healthy.
The Titans are still trying to determine if the 2023 second-round pick can be their quarterback of the future.
"What we were hoping to get out of the season was a really solid and concrete evaluation of Will as a starting quarterback," head coach Brian Callahan told reporters.
Whenever Levis does return to the starting role, he'll now have to do so without one of his top targets. Hopkins ranks second behind only Calvin Ridley (183 yards) in receiving yards and behind Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (2 TDs) in receiving touchdowns.
Making things even more challenging for Levis is the fact that Tennessee recently placed Treylon Burks on injured reserve with a knee injury. While the 2022 first-round pick has logged only three receptions for 34 yards this season, he would be a logical candidate to see more playing time with Hopkins gone.
Winner: Tennessee Titans
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Realistically, Levis has done nothing to suggest that he's going to be Tennessee's long-term answer at the game's most important position. Callahan and the Titans will say otherwise publicly—and they'll give the 25-year-old a chance to change the narrative—but Tennessee is probably already eying the 2025 NFL draft.
While the 2025 quarterback class isn't expected to be nearly as deep as the 2024 class is proving to be, some intriguing prospects are expected to be available.
Miami's Cam Ward is the top-ranked quarterback prospect on the Bleacher Report Scouting Department's early 2025 big board. Colorado's Shedeur Sanders and Georgia's Carson Beck will also be in the first-round conversation.
Looking through this lens, trading Hopkins is a big win for the Titans. They're acquiring extra draft capital for a 32-year-old receiver who was likely to depart in 2025 free agency anyway. While Day 3 picks aren't exceedingly valuable, the return for Hopkins could become part of a package to move up in Round 1.
Trading Hopkins should also make the Titans offense worse in the short term. That will give Tennessee a better shot at potentially securing the No. 1 overall pick.
Neither coaches nor players will lose intentionally. However, organizational tanking does occur in the NFL. Moving Hopkins now might help the Titans secure their next quarterback of the future.
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Loser: Los Angeles Rams
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In many ways, the Hopkins trade is a win-win for the Titans and Chiefs. However, it can be viewed as a loss for the Los Angeles Rams, who are reportedly open to trading wide receiver Cooper Kupp.
According to Dianna Russini, Mike Silver and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic, the Rams have contacted "multiple teams" about moving Kupp. They're hoping to receive a second-round pick and are open to paying some of his 2024 salary to facilitate a deal.
Kupp has been a difference-maker in L.A. when healthy. However, he's also a 31-year-old who has struggled to stay on the field since his breakout 1,947-yard campaign in 2021. Trading him now would make sense if the Rams are eying a rebuild.
However, the Hopkins trade likely takes Kansas City out of the receiver trade market. According to Russini, the Chiefs were interested in Kupp before settling on Hopkins.
The terms of the Hopkins trade also hurt L.A.'s chances of getting its desired return for Kupp. Neither Adams nor Cooper commanded a firm second-round pick, and now Hopkins has gone for a Day 3 selection.
The Rams may still find a buyer at their asking price, and Kansas City could still revisit Kupp if that price comes down. However, the latest receiver trade may have thrown a wrench into Los Angeles' plans to move Kupp before November 5.
Winner: New Chiefs WR DeAndre Hopkins
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Perhaps the biggest winner of this trade is Hopkins himself. The 2013 first-round pick out of Clemson is now in his 12th NFL season. He's made five Pro Bowls and been a first-team All-Pro three times while racking up more than 12,000 receiving yards.
However, Hopkins has never won a Super Bowl. In fact, the 32-year-old has never come particularly close.
In his time with the Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals and Titans, Hopkins has only appeared in six playoff games. He's experienced two postseason wins and has never made it past the divisional round.
By joining the Chiefs, Hopkins gets a chance to at least chase a championship. Kansas City has won the last two Super Bowls and has appeared in four of the last five. The Chiefs have also appeared in six straight AFC title games.
There's no guarantee that Kansas City will make another deep postseason run, but their outlook is far sunnier than anything Hopkins ever experienced in Arizona or Tennessee.
Plus, Hopkins gets to go from playing with Levis and Mason Rudolph to catching passes from Patrick Mahomes. Assuming that results in an uptick in production (how can it not?), that can only help his value on the 2025 free-agent market.
Losers: The AFC's Other Playoff Contenders
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The biggest losers in the Hopkins trade are the teams looking to unseat Kansas City as the franchise to beat in the AFC.
While the Chiefs are undefeated, they've appeared vulnerable all season. Their defense is terrific (fifth in points allowed), but their offense has struggled (13th in scoring). Injuries, especially at receiver, haven't helped Kansas City's cause.
The Bills and Jets traded for receivers in an attempt to chase the Chiefs in what could be viewed as a down year for them. The Pittsburgh Steelers have become a serious threat, while the Baltimore Ravens, at least offensively, look like the best team in the conference.
However, Kansas City will be extremely hard to knock off in the postseason, especially if it nets the AFC's No. 1 seed and home-field advantage.
The Chiefs didn't earn the top seed in 2023, and they were in a similar position offensively during the regular season. They won road games against the Bills and Ravens in the playoffs and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy anyway because they found an offensive formula just in time for the postseason.
By acquiring Hopkins now, Kansas City gives itself a chance to click well ahead of the stretch run—and before its Week 11 playoff rematch in Buffalo. If Hopkins has the desired impact on Kansas City's offense, overtaking the Chiefs as the top seed in the conference becomes an even bigger challenge for everyone else.
As of now, the road to Super Bowl LIX will run through Kansas City in the AFC. The last thing other Super Bowl hopefuls wanted to see was the Chiefs getting even stronger.
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