Brycen Hopkins Eager To Uphold Family NFL Tradition
INDIANAPOLIS — Brycen Hopkins’ ultimate goal is to build upon his family’s successful NFL name.
The Purdue tight end prepared for this week's NFL Scouting Combine by turning to his father, Brad Hopkins, who played all 13 seasons of his NFL career with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans. And dad enlisted some pass-catching help from a former teammate, longtime NFL wide receiver Derrick Mason.
While admittedly nervous about the combine routine, where teams watch workouts and try to get to know players in brief interviews, Brycen was grateful for the professional assistance he received in workouts back home in Nashville, Tenn.
“He’s coaching my entire blocking scheme, so anything to do with blocking I’m being coached by my dad, Brad Hopkins,” Brycen said Tuesday of his father, a two-time Pro Bowl selection as an offensive left tackle. “In the receiving game, I’m being coached by Derrick Mason, who was a teammate of my dad’s and has plenty of experience, holds records. He’s a great detail-oriented receiver. He did a great job preparing me for this.
“They did a great job of just showing me what this process is all about, what was important in it, the mindset to have going into it, how prepared I had to be for it. They did a great job of just harping on this is the NFL, it’s a business, you’ve got to have that business attitude and remember that you’re fighting to take food off another man’s own plate, so the work starts now behind the scenes. They did a great job of getting me to where I’m at.”
Brycen, at 6-5 and 245, considers himself a versatile “move” tight end, which means he’s typically counted on as a pass catcher and not asked to block as much. His career-best 61 receptions for 830 yards and two TDs in 2019 earned him All-Big Ten first-team honors. He was also named a second-team All-American by CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.
With Brad’s help, Brycen wants to show prospective NFL employers that he’s not shy about staying on the line to block.
“I am probably more of a move tight end, but also they want me to be able to block,” he said. “There’s no specific position, there are multiple tight end positions, but there’s no specific way I want to be played. Whatever the team or offense is going to ask of me, I’m going to do it. There’s nothing I’m worried about in that manner. I just want to play.”
Brycen concedes he’s focused more on catching the ball and eliminating “concentration drops.” He put in extra time with the JUGS machine before the combine. He’s watched film of Pro Bowl tight ends Travis Kelce of Kansas City, Zach Ertz of Philadelphia and George Kittle of San Francisco to try to pattern his game after them.
“Whether you’re standing still, whether you’re real close to the JUGS or far away, put it on high speed, whether you’ve got a quarterback hitting you in movement, repetitions is how I learned and how I get better at things,” he said. “I’m a visual learner. I’m an active learner. I like to be hands on. Just repetitions. Keep going through the motions. Keep catching that ball. Focus on keeping my eyes on it until it’s in my hands and tucking it in and not thinking about what I’m going to do with the ball before it gets to me. Don’t get too excited. Just work on securing the catch.”
In the end, Brycen is optimistic he can enhance the family’s NFL legacy.
“He had a great career, a great long career, and a lot of people know him for the things he did on the field,” he said of his father. “I would like to be that same way, uphold that Hopkins name but at the same time build on my own brand and my own name, Brycen Hopkins. So whenever people think of me, they think of my dad. Whenever people think of him, they think of me. I would love to carry on that tradition and that name.”
