The Patriots are back to the drawing board after a failed attempt at adding free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to their roster.
According to AtoZ Sports’ Doug Kyed, Hopkins will be signing with the Tennessee Titans, and the deal is expected to be official “over the next few days”.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio joined WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on Monday to discuss all things Patriots, including their loss in the pursuit of Hopkins. Listen to the full interview below.
“I remember when Mike Reiss of ESPN.com threw out as an idea ‘$10 million plus 2 or 3 [million] in incentives,’” Florio explained as New England’s potential price range for the star wide receiver. “I always looked at that as what the Patriots were willing to do.”
Hopkins will ultimately sign a two-year, $26 million deal that’s worth up to $32 million in incentive according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. He’ll receive a base salary of $12 million in 2023 with a chance to get to $15 million, something the Patriots could have made work. So why didn’t they?
“Is Bill Belichick going to regret not investing the extra three million? Who knows. Who knows how it’s going to play out. Who knows what his plan B is.”
Florio went on to question if New England truly had an interest in Hopkins:
“I’ve always wondered whether or not Bill Belichick was just kind of half-hearted in the pursuit of DeAndre Hopkins anyway because the way he’s handled his business in the past, he goes quiet, he goes secret, he goes stealth mode, and then he gets the guy. And we didn’t even know he wanted him until he got him. I always thought it was odd with Hopkins that it was so well known that the Patriots were interested.”
“I really have wondered ‘is this a guy that Belichick, kind of deep down, didn’t want’. And it goes back to the whole culture fit, that I’m sure you guys have talked about, and the practice aversion that Hopkins reportedly has."
“If feel like if Bill really wanted [Hopkins], he would have gotten him, and we wouldn’t have even known he was chasing him.”
Florio also spoke of the reported tension brewing between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft:
“I think the comments that Robert Kraft made at the league meetings in Arizona in late-March were not received with the significance they should have,” Florio said. “Robert Kraft didn’t say ‘hey [Belichick] is here as long as he wants to be’ or ‘hey he’s here until he breaks Don Shula’s record’... he said ‘we want our players to get statistics, but more important, we want to win football games’, and I got the impression from the way he answered the question that another season of no playoffs could be a major problem for Bill Belichick.”
“And then you’ve got that issue that, I know bubbled up recently, but had been actually commented on earlier to the question of cash spending and Belichick complaining they were at the bottom of the league on a three-year rolling average and Kraft saying ‘hey I give the guy whatever he wants.’”
“There’s an under current of tension there.”
If Kraft is, in fact, telling the truth on who's in charge of the Patriots' cash spending, then New England not landing Hopkins is likely a matter of Belichick not wanting to pony up for an aging veteran.
Because of this, New England now heads into 2023 with the below wide receiver room:
JuJu Smith-Schuster
DeVante Parker
Kendrick Bourne
Tyquan Thornton
Tre Nixon
Raleigh Webb
Kayshon Boutte (R)
Demario Douglas (R)
Malik Cunningham (R)
Ed Lee (R)
As our good friend Andy Hart wrote this morning for WEEI.com, this room is filled with potential.
Hopkins would have added the closest to a guarantee as you could get. Instead, they’re banking on only that... potential.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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