NFL Insider Provides Update on KC Chiefs and DeAndre Hopkins

On a recent episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast, the ESPN NFL insider doubled down on the KC Chiefs making sense for DeAndre Hopkins's free agency.

As organized team activities begin to wrap up for NFL clubs and mandatory minicamps are on the docket, the popular topic of league discourse is centered around the ongoing free agency of former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. 

The Kansas City Chiefs were dubbed an early suitor dating back as far as when Arizona engaged in trade discussions for the All-Pro wideout, and that alleged interest hasn't died down much according to recent reports. In fact, the Chiefs remain squarely in the thick of the race among top teams looking to court Hopkins for his services in 2023.

On a recent episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast, ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter addressed the latest happenings regarding the Hopkins situation. Schefter has previously singled out Kansas City as the team that is the most sensible for the 31-year-old, and he isn't wavering from that viewpoint. With that said, Schefter continued to explain how the Chiefs' cap situation makes things more difficult and leaves general manager Brett Veach with some work to do if he wants to land Hopkins: 

"We continue to wait for a home for DeAndre Hopkins and, again, we said on this podcast last week that Kansas City would make the most sense. I haven't heard anything that makes me change my mind. Now the issue there is that the Chiefs don't have a lot of money. They recently paid offensive tackle Donovan Smith, they have to redo the contract of Chris Jones at some point here in the coming weeks [and] they have to address Patrick Mahomes, who's got nine years left on a contract that already has left him underpaid despite the fact that he might be the best player in the National Football League."

As things stand in early June, the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills have been the two common teams being thrown around in discussions about signing Hopkins. Ironically, neither franchise is particularly flush with available salary cap space. Buffalo recently completed the signing of pass-rusher Leonard Floyd and has a bit of leftover cash to spend, but it isn't much. Kansas City has even less, with an estimated $1.24M available per the NFLPA's public salary cap report. 

Surprisingly, according to Schefter, the market for Hopkins isn't as impressive as some originally expected. Despite him showing in 2022 that he still has plenty left in the tank to offer, the simple fact is that many teams either don't have much money left to spend right now or have already addressed their need for a receiver this offseason. Schefter believes that even though the Chiefs have to make a move or two in order to free up the room needed to sign Hopkins, he may be a free agent for a bit longer: 

"So if and when they can get more cap flexibility from Chris Jones [and] maybe even Patrick Mahomes, then at that point in time, maybe it puts the Chiefs in a little bit better of a position to go make a move for DeAndre Hopkins. But right now, the market for Hopkins seems to be soft. I think that's the best way to describe it — it's a soft market where fans are really curious about where he's going to go and teams are proceeding right now very slowly because they don't have a lot of cap space or they don't have the need. So DeAndre Hopkins is sitting out there, and it looks like he'll be sitting out there for a little while longer."

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