Houston Texans: DeAndre Hopkins deserved better in NFL Top 100
There is no argument that Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is a Top 10 player in the NFL, even if he wasn’t included in the NFL Top 100.
It is tough to grasp that Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins wasn’t included in the Top 10 of the 2019 NFL Top 100. In fact, it kind of is mind-boggling how he didn’t make the list, considering all that he did last season on an offense that could be described as stale and even boring at times.
In 2018, Hopkins not only caught for 1,572 yards off 115 receptions — another career-high — but if he’s not on the offense of the Texans, they don’t win the AFC South championship, and they don’t win 11 games in the regular season.
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The ’18 season of Hopkins also included 163 targets, and the craziest stat of all he had a season ago is he didn’t have a dropped pass. Hopkins also averaged 13.7 yards per reception, caught 11 touchdowns (tied for the second-most in his career) and averaged 98.3 yards receiving per game.
How did those numbers by Hopkins measure against the rest of the NFL last season? Hopkins was second in receiving yards, with only Julio Jones of the Atlanta Falcons ahead of him with 1,677 yards. Hopkins was also third in the league in receptions, fifth in touchdowns, fourth in 20-plus yard receptions (24), second in yards per game and first in catches for first downs at 81.
In having a second-year quarterback who was under a lot of pressure in Deshaun Watson, who is becoming one of the better quarterbacks in the entire league, the numbers Hopkins put up were amazing.
Don’t forget, Hopkins had the very best coverage a team had to offer each week, meaning there were no easy games and not any plays off because each week, Hopkins had to earn every yard he got. There was also the fact the rest of the wide receivers on the roster were either injured for most or parts of the season, allowing teams to put even more than usual coverage on him.
Wide receivers ranked ahead of Hopkins on the NFL Top 100 were Antonio Brown of the Oakland Raiders (seventh) and Jones of the Falcons (10th).
Brown sat out the last game of the season in 2018 as he and the Pittsburgh Steelers were basically not on talking terms, resulting him not returning to the only franchise he’s played for. Jones is a strong player and top wide receiver too.
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If those two are in the Top 10 of that list, Hopkins deserves to be there as well. Hopkins has shown throughout his entire career he’s an elite wide receiver, and being 11th this year (he was 13th last year) just isn’t right, and once again it shows he’s underrated by those whom he plays against.