Houston Texans: DeAndre Hopkins among franchise all-time greats

Houston Texans fans are still in shock over the trade of DeAndre Hopkins, one of the greatest players in franchise history.

It is still hard to understand why the Houston Texans would trade one of their all-time great players still in his prime. DeAndre Hopkins is clearly one of the top five players in the history of the Texans.

Without a doubt, Hopkins trails only the great Andre Johnson as far as receivers go. Not only does he rank second in most receiving categories, but you could argue that his contributions to the Texans outweigh all but Johnson’s and those of J.J. Watt.

Cases could be made for Arian Foster, Brian Cushing, and Matt Schaub as they all had huge impacts on this franchise, but Hopkins’ performances seem to be above those, if slightly.

Fans can’t help but feel cheated of the chance to see what Hopkins could have done if he could have stayed a Texans through a few more of his prime seasons.

Career rankings in receiving for DeAndre Hopkins for the Houston Texans

• Receptions – second – 632 (Johnson, 1,012)
• Receiving Yards – second – 8,602 (Johnson, 13,597)
• Yards per Reception (min 100) – fourth – 13.6 (Corey Bradford, 15.3)
• Touchdown – second – 54 (Johnson, 64)
• Yards per Game – second – 78.2 (Johnson, 80.5)

While Johnson is significantly ahead of Hopkins in catches and yards, Hopkins would have surpassed him either next season or certainly the year after that in touchdowns.

Hopkins will 28 for the 2020 season. If he continued his career in a Texans uniform for at least the next five seasons and played somewhat up to the levels at which he’s performed in his career, it would have been conceivable he might have challenged Johnson’s tremendous numbers.

Hopkins has averaged 101 catches over his last five years and averaged 1,229 yards in his career. If he could have maintained those averages through the age of 32 in Houston, he might just have surpassed John. Wouldn’t that have been something.

Now, that chance is gone. Opportunities to see players who are among the best all-time at their positions are rare. Now, Texans fans have been robbed of that.

Of course, no one will know what will happen with Hopkins and his career moving forward with the Cardinals. He will be working with another talented young quarterback in Kyler Murray, and so if Hopkins is happy there and can stay awhile, Cardinals fans will get a treat.

Houston Texans fans are going to miss watching DeAndre Hopkins every week!