Brycen Hopkins' Dream Weekend With Family Ends on a High Note with Pick by Rams
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The draft picks came, one after another, and minutes turned into hours on the clock. Football fans can ingest each choice and love it while watching the NFL Draft, but when you're that player in the basement, sitting with your family waiting for your name to be called, time can practically stand still.
That's the way it was for Purdue tight end Brycen Hopkins this weekend. The first round came and went on Thursday, which was no big deal, but Hopkins and his family watched all of the second and third rounds in Franklin, Tenn., just south of Nashville, on Friday with fingers crossed, though nothing happened.
That night of maybe turned into a night of no.
It wasn't until Saturday afternoon when the Los Angeles Rams called and selected him in the fourth round, with the 136th overall pick. For Hopkins, it was the team that mattered, not the round, and that made the weekend that much more special — and a lot less nerve-racking.
"I didn't really listen or pay attention to a lot of those mock draft projections, so I really wasn't all that disappointed with how it played out,'' Hopkins said in a phone interview. "I knew I was going to get picked eventually and, to me, it was more about which team picked me more than when I got picked.
"I paid attention when certain teams were picking, and it was easy to get pretty anxious now and then, but I was thrilled it was the Rams. Los Angeles is a great city, they've got a great coach (Sean McVay), and they run a great offense. Those are all good things for me. I can't wait to get started.''
Hopkins, who's been back home in the Nashville area and training there since leaving Purdue, watched the draft with his mom Kellie and the entire family in the basement of their house.
"We had all my immediate family here,'' Hopkins said. "My mom and her husband, my grandma and my aunt, my dad and his wife, my brother, my sister and a couple of really good friends that I train with.
"We had a nice time. And when the pick finally came, there was a lot of yelling and screaming and crying. It was great to share all of that with my family.''
A perfect fit with the Rams
Hopkins had conversations with several teams throughout the process, but he said the Rams have been actively involved from the beginning. They were planning on adding a tight end in the draft, and were zeroed in on Hopkins, among others.
"They were involved with me early,'' Hopkins said. "Back in February, one of their scouts came to Nashville to see me, and we had a great time. He watched me work out, and then we watched a lot of film for an hour or so and really broke down a lot of things. Then we had lunch. It was a great visit, and they kept in touch all along.''
There are a lot of connections that make this a perfect fit, too. Hopkins is very familiar with Rams starting tight end Tyler Higbee, because he played at Western Kentucky for current Purdue coach Jeff Brohm in 2014 and 2015, Brohm's first two years there. His former strength coach at Purdue, Justin Lovett, was hired by the Rams for the same role in March.
"I'm a big fan of Tyler Higbee (the Rams' starting tight end who had four straight 100-yard games late in the season and 69 catches on the year). I've watched him a lot because I think we have similar games. That's partly why I think it's such a fantastic fit. I'm really looking forward to being a part of that offense. And I'm looking forward to being back around Coach Lovett, too.''
He also watched a lot of tape at Purdue, because Brohm and his staff would use film of Bigbee at Western Kentucky to show Hopkins and his fellow tight ends the correct way to run plays in meetings. All that work paid off to the tune of 130 catches for 1,945 yards and 16 touchdown for Hopkins during his four-year Purdue career.
"My time at Purdue definitely helped get me ready for the NFL,'' Hopkins said. "The Rams, they even brought that up when they were watching my film, that we ran a lot of stuff that was very similar to what they run. So I think I will be able to adapt to their playbook pretty quickly.''
Fine-tuning his game for the next level
The only real criticism of Hopkins' game coming into the draft was that he had too many drops this season. NFL folks love everything else that the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Hopkins brings to the table, especially his ability to get open at the top of his route and rack up yards after the catch with is speed.
The seven drops he was credited for, that was an issue.
"I think the drops have been a little overblown, to be honest with you. And if people watch the film, they'd see it,'' Hopkins said. "The drops were more of 'concentration' drops, not 'athletic' drops.
"I have good hands and I'm athletic. I can make all the tough catches, and I've made that a point of emphasis in my training since then, through the Senior Bowl and the (NFL) Combine and ever since, to stay concentrated on the ball all the way through. I don't think it's an issue at all, because it's definitely a focus of what I've been working on.''
The end, and now a beginning
Hopkins had been preparing for this moment basically since birth. His father, Brad Hopkins, played 13 years in the NFL with the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans and Brycen has been able to lean on his for football advice. He and his brother Collin — who's the starting catcher on Indiana's baseball teams — saw plenty of football as kids.
And mom Kellie, she's traveled all over watching her kids play. That includes her daughter Gentry, too, who's on a national championship dance team at the University of Tennessee.
"My mom, she's great and she's always been there with us at games since we were little,'' Brycen said. "She's got quite a closet. There's Purdue stuff, Indiana stuff, and Tennessee stuff, too. She tries to get to everything, no matter where it is.''
Hopkins will stay in Franklin until it's safe to get to Los Angeles. But he'll keep working hard with trainers every day. It's time for the next step in his journey.
"I don't really look at it like it's over now that the draft is done. To me, it's just the beginning,'' Hopkins said. "I'm definitely not hitting the brakes at all when it comes to working out, and we'll do a lot of meetings virtually with the Rams from here in Nashville. "
"I'm staying here with my mom until I can get out to California, but I have no idea when that's going to be. I'm good here until then.''
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.