Careful What You Wish For
The Flock’s feathers are ruffled over the wide receiver position—again.
After failing to find a trade partner, the Arizona Cardinals released star WR DeAndre Hopkins on Friday, electing to eat the majority of the $26M remaining on his contract. Almost immediately, fans began clamoring for Eric DeCosta to add D-Hop to an already crowded room of pass catchers. Their logic has merit: adding Hopkins could really push the Ravens offense over the top.
Stack the box to stop the powerful RB duo of JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards? The new receiving corps will burn you.
Flank your corners out wide to stop the WRs? Good luck with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely from the tight end spot.
Use your linebackers to cover the TEs? Lamar Jackson will run all over your defense.
Would it even be possible to limit that offense? It would undoubtedly give opposing defensive coordinators some serious headaches, to say the least. And, as pointed out by Ravens insider Sarah Ellison, there appears to be mutual interest from both the club and Hopkins in teaming up. During contract negotiations (thank goodness that’s over), Lamar asked for either Odell Beckham Jr. or Hopkins. The team went out and got OBJ, who has recently been training with guess who: D-Hop. As a guest on a recent edition of the “I Am Athlete” podcast, Hopkins named the Chiefs, Bills, and Ravens, among other teams, as organizations he would be interested in joining. On top of that, he said it would be “an honor” to play with an athlete like Lamar.
And it doesn’t stop there. Of the three teams Hopkins highlighted, the Ravens have the most cap space by far, sitting at $11M under the cap. KC and Buffalo sit at $0.6M and $1.6M under, respectively. Close to the NFL Draft, it’s believed that the Cardinals had trade talks with those two teams, but they fell through… seemingly due to financial reasons. That is not as big a problem with the Ravens.
Saturday night led to even greater speculation about D-Hop joining the Flock. On his Instagram story, Hopkins posted a picture of himself and a few others playing pool. What makes the story interesting, though, is the location tag the free agent added to the post: “Baltimore, MD” in purple font. Around the same time, an admittedly sketchy rumor emerged on Twitter, claiming that one of Hopkins’s family members said that his most likely destination was the Ravens.
If everything that’s been reported is true, all signs point to Hopkins wearing purple and black under the lights at the Bank on Sunday afternoons (and maybe another jersey change for James Proche).
But… is that what we really want?
Every Dollar Counts
Unlike in recent years, the wide receiver room is not the most pressing need for the Ravens. DeCosta has assembled a pretty solid corps of pass-catchers: a do-it-all guy in OBJ, a ball-in-traffic receiver in Rashod Bateman, and a shifty playmaker who can manufacture touches and tale the top off of the defense in rookie Zay Flowers. Especially when compared to the group on the field during the Wild Card game in Cincinnati (Demarcus Robinson, Proche, and Sammy Watkins), this is an astronomical leap forward.
That being said, Ravens have clear holes in multiple areas on defense: outside linebacker/EDGE and cornerback. If the season started today, Mike McDonald would have the unproven youngsters Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo, alongside the steady but unspectacular Tyus Bowser, available to rush opposing QBs on any given play. Sure, MLBs Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen—arguably the best tandem in the league—can generate pressure, and rookie Trenton Simpson can likely make an impact… but that’s not a whole lot of depth. I wouldn’t be surprised if DeCosta tried to bring back Justin Houston, who was fantastic last season, or even Jason Pierre-Paul to fill the void. Some financial magic on the behalf of EDC could put the Ravens in play for former Ram Leonard Floyd, who was a cap casualty as LA recovered from its yearly trip to salary cap hell.
Marcus Peters, too, has expressed interest in returning to the team. A one-year deal could be ideal, filling the team’s gap at CB3 for this season (if Brandon Stephens is really transitioning to safety) and giving 2022 draft picks Pepe Williams and Jalyn Armour-Davis the chance to rise to the occasion in 2024-25. Peters hasn’t received much interest from other teams, drawing a visit from only the Raiders, and John Harbaugh made it seem as if the Ravens haven’t closed the door on him. Beyond that, the team’s top 2 corners, Marlon Humphrey and Rock Ya-Sin, are mostly lockdown guys who don’t necessarily intercept a lot of passes. Every CB room needs a guy who threatens to take the ball away on any given play, which is exactly what Peters is. If willing to take a team-friendly deal, which I’m guessing he is, MP could be the right player at the right price.
Overcrowded
Issue though is that Lamar also said the reason they didn’t pursue Hopkins is they believe in Bateman. He calls him a No. 1 WR. You’d be undoing all that with this move. It’s a fine line.
I’d personally want to see what Bate can do in Monken’s offense. #Ravens #RavensFlock https://t.co/ghsR55t7EA
— Dev Panchwagh (@devpanchwagh) May 26, 2023
Furthermore, adding Hopkins would make the WR room even more crowded—arguably too crowded. Right now, Odell is likely to take the crown as WR1 with Bateman likely to fill a WR1B or WR2 role. Flowers will most likely settle in as a WR3, but he’ll still see his fair share of targets and designed touches.
Adding D-Hop changes everything. This is what the WR corps would look like if the Ravens brought him in:
WR1A: Odell Beckham Jr.
WR1B: DeAndre Hopkins
WR3: Rashod Bateman
WR4: Zay Flowers
This move would put Flowers fourth in the pecking order for targets just among WR (so not even considering Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, and Charlie Kolar) and essentially eliminate Bateman’s chances at a 1,000-yard season. Investment is too great in those two players to limit their target share like that and would definitely make them unhappy, especially Bateman. It’s not unreasonable to believe that he would request a trade shortly after the season’s end… making him Marquise Brown 2.0. I highly doubt that EDC would toss his two first round picks to the near bottom of the depth chart. If he did, the team could face some major problems.
Consider the Consequences…
The idea of signing DeAndre Hopkins sounds tempting. That is indisputable. The Ravens will likely kick the tires on him, but I’m betting that’s all that will come of this.
But who can know for sure?
Be careful what you wish for.
You might just get it.
