Rams Select TE Brycen Hopkins With No. 136 Pick in NFL Draft

The Los Angeles Rams picked Purdue TE Brycen Hopkins at No. 136 overall the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Los Angeles Rams selected TE Brycen Hopkins with the 136th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft. A Tennessee native, Hopkins played football, baseball and basketball at The Ensworth School in Nashville, TN. Rated as a three-star tight end recruit by 247Sports.com and ESPN.com, Hopkins was named All-State Division II-AA as a senior. His dad, Brad Hopkins, played 194 games during 13 seasons with the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. Prior to committing to Purdue, Hopkins received interest from several schools, including Georgia, Auburn and Florida.

Hopkins only played football during his final two years in high school. It was basketball, however, that got him noticed by recruiters. “He drove the baseline and just ripped the rim off the hinges, almost. I was like, ‘There you go,’” former Purdue recruiting coordinator Gerad Parker said. Hopkins slowly built himself into a legit prospect with the Boilermakers. He went from 10 catches as a freshman to 25 as a sophomore and then 34 during his junior year.

A full-time starter, for the first time as a senior, Hopkins earned All-American honors and was voted the Big Ten Kwalick-Clark Tight End of the Year. He recorded 61 receptions for 830 yards and seven touchdowns during his final season at Purdue. His reception and yardage totals were the most by a Boilermakers tight end since Dustin Keller had 68 receptions for 881 yards in 2007. A big target, at 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, Hopkins clocked a 4.66 time in the 40-yard dash at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine.

2019 stats (Senior; Purdue): 830 receiving yards, 7 touchdowns (11 games)

2018 stats (Junior; Purdue): 583 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns (12 games)

2017 stats (Sophomore; Purdue): 349 receiving yards, 3 touchdowns (11 games)

2016 stats (Freshman; Purdue): 183 receiving yards, 4 touchdowns (6 games)

Los Angeles Rams stats to know

• The Rams ranked 32nd in the NFL catches (37), receiving yards (260), and targets (62) at the RB positions, which came after two productive years from their running backs in 2017 (74/842/6) and 2018 (70/676/5).
• Todd Gurley finished in the top five of running back routes in each of the last three seasons. In 2019, LA used him as a decoy about 47 percent more than his success in 2017 and almost 34 percent in 2018.
• Los Angeles placed second in the NFL in catches (249), fourth in receiving yards (3,219), and second in targets (390) for their wide receivers.
• DE Dante Fowler (11.5), DE Aaron Donald (12.5), and LB Clay Matthews (8.0) combined for 32 of the Rams 50 sacks, but Fowler and Matthews are no longer on the roster.
• Jared Goff ranked second in the NFL in completions over 20 yards (72) while tying Jameis Winston for the most pass attempts (626).

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