DeAndre Hopkins describes choice to signupwith Titans, cautions puton’t compose group off

The Tennessee Titans made a summerseason splash earlier this month, inking broad receiver and five-time Pro Bowler DeAndre Hopkins to a two-year offer worth a optimum $32 million. Hopkins mostlikely endsupbeing the Titans’ No. 1 large receiver, while the group gets a much-needed increase on the outdoors. 

Is this a match made in paradise?

Hopkins revealed Monday why the Titans were an perfect landing area for him.

“I am extremely delighted,” Hopkins informed the Titans’ group site about making the relocation to Nashville. “This was a group that as quickly as the offseason hit, and I understood I was potentially going to be traded, this was a group that was on my list of locations that I desired to play since of the history [head coach] Mike Vrabel and I have, the history [offensive coordinator] Tim Kelly and I have.

“I desired to be someplace where I understood individuals had my finest interests, not simply on the field however off the field as well.”

Prior to being called Tennessee’s head coach in 2018, Vrabel was a defensive assistant (linebackers coach and lateron defensive planner) for the Houston Texans from 2014-17. Hopkins invested the veryfirst 7 seasons of his NFL profession (2013-19) with the Texans and then completed versus Vrabel and the Titans in the AFC South from 2018-19. 

Meanwhile, Kelly was an offensive assistant for the Texans from 2014-21, serving as the group’s offensive organizer in2019 Hopkins logged 1,100-plus getting backyards in 5 of his 7 seasons with Houston, while likewise logging 10-plus getting goals in 3 of those years.

Last season, Hopkins amountedto 64 receptions for 717 backyards and 3 goals for the Arizona Cardinals. He was suspended for the veryfirst 6 videogames of the 2022 season for breaching the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy and then missedouton the last 2 videogames due to a knee injury. The year previous, Hopkins missedouton 8 integrated videogames (regular season plus postseason) due to a hamstring injury. 

Hopkins, 31, was launched by the Cardinals in May after they couldn’t work out a trade for the veteran receiver and the $54 million staying on his previous agreement.

Hopkins “absolutely” desires to show that he’s still an elite wideout, while caution the NFL world not to sleep on the 2023 Titans.

“I feel like I’ve constantly had something to show, and that’s how I play my videogame,” Hopkins stated. “The choice to come to Nashville, clearly, made a lot of individuals mad. But I kind of felt at house being here from the get-go, from early on.

“Tennessee is a group not numerous individuals put on their list, and I believe I am not simply speaking for myself, however the group as well, individuals are composing us off.”

Hopkins signsupwith a Titans pass-catching group that consistsof 2022 draft chooses Treylon Burks and Chigoziem Okonkwo, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and totallyfree representative signee Chris Moore. Tennessee hadahardtime strongly in creating offense through the air last season, averaging simply 171.4 passing backyards per videogame (30th in the NFL). 

The Titans started last season 7-3 priorto losing their last 7 videogames, a stretch that consistedof quarterback Ryan Tannehill going down for the year with an ankle injury in Week15 Tennessee lost its last videogame of the season on the roadway versus the Jacksonville Jaguars in what was a win-or-go-home match for the AFC South department title. 

The Titans had made the playoffs every year from 2019-21, consistingof a journey to the AFC Championship Game in the 2019 season.