The fantasy implications of the Chiefs acquiring DeAndre Hopkins
Wednesday morning, the Kansas City Chiefs finally gave in and traded for a receiver. JuJu Smith-Schuster’s hamstring injury appeared to be the last straw for a team that spent portions of Sunday’s win over the 49ers running a three-wide set of Xavier Worthy, Justin Watson, and Skyy Moore. Their leading receiver in the game was Noah Gray – the only player who had more than 22 receiving yards – and Mecole Hardman was also heavily involved. Enough was enough.
The question, foreshadowed a bit by The Athletic’s Nate Taylor in a piece yesterday, was who the receiver would be. We got the answer when the Chiefs brought in reliable veteran DeAndre Hopkins, who spent portions of Sunday’s loss to the Colts sidelined with “lower leg soreness” which looks like it might clear up before the Chiefs take on the Raiders. They gave up only a fifth-round pick which can convert into a fourth-round pick if certain conditions are met. It sounds like they wanted to buy, but not play in the big kid pool.
Does DeAndre Hopkins immediately become Kansas City’s No. 1 receiver?
Well, probably not. You’d have to think that the history of playing with Travis Kelce gives him a fantasy edge over Hopkins. Hopkins, who spent most of training camp dealing with an MCL injury, finally started to look right in Week 3 when he caught 6 of 7 targets for 73 yards and a score. Hopkins, now 32, is not going to give the Chiefs anything they didn’t already have in Kelce. If anything, he’s going to replicate that skillset and mostly replace Smith-Schuster. That’s not a bad thing for Hopkins – Smith-Schuster did just go 7/130 in his last healthy start against the Saints on Monday night – but it does mean that there will probably be days where the flow makes it a Kelce game as well as days where it is a Hopkins game.
It absolutely puts Hopkins on the fantasy radar, to be clear: He’s a WR3/FLEX option again. But it’s probably a bit rich to believe he’s going to suddenly be more than that at his age, even if I do think the Will Levis/Brian Callahan offense absolutely set any possibility of him looking good in his small sample this year on fire.
Don’t miss episodes of Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry and Rotoworld Football Show all season long for the latest player news, waiver wire help, start/sit advice, and much more.
How quickly can Hopkins get acclimated to playing with Patrick Mahomes?
Here’s the main question. Last week’s Davante Adams trade involved a player hooking up with his former teammate. Mahomes and Hopkins may have worked together at a Pro Bowl in 2018, but they have no innate chemistry built in. That’s not to say that it can’t come together fast, Hopkins is as sharp as they come and he’s bounced between several offenses in the past four years. Andy Reid and Matt Nagy may have more short misdirection than most teams, but it likely won’t be so different from the Bill O’Brien/Kliff Kingsbury asks of Hopkins that he’ll be a fish out of water.
My guess? It takes a week or two before we see what Hopkins can really do in this offense. I wouldn’t be rushing to start him against the Raiders. But I do think he’s a nice hold and a worthwhile use of a bench spot this week.
The fantasy losers of this trade: Xavier Worthy, Travis Kelce
The thing about Xavier Worthy, and the reason why he wasn’t converting this opportunity into real fantasy points yet, is that he simply can’t beat press coverage right now. I actually think this trade semi-helps him in the sense that he’ll be less of a focus for defenses. But we also have to admit that it completely wrecks any sort of “light goes on, he is the main receiver and nobody can stop him” upside scenario. He’s still rosterable, but more of a WR4 until we see sustained massive target shares.
Kelce, well, this trade is a direct attack on his route tree and general area of the field. Hopkins can win outside, but he’s at his most dangerous on in-breakers over the middle, just as Kelce is. He’s still a TE1 in this land where there are no real TE1s besides PPR schemes, but it’s less exciting of a proposition.
Skyy Moore would be a loser of this trade if I thought there was any chance he could have done something to help, but I have watched a lot of Skyy Moore the last three years and so have the Chiefs.
The fantasy winners of this trade: Well, probably just DeAndre Hopkins
The target vacuum in Tennessee that Hopkins leaves are not high-quality fantasy targets at this point. Calvin Ridley probably remains on the fantasy radar just due to the pure volume of targets he’s getting, perhaps this is a slight bump on those, but he has turned his last 17 targets into three catches for 42 yards. That’s what we’re dealing with here. Tyler Boyd and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine should be the other two receivers in Tennessee’s three-wide. If you’re excited about the prospects of Tyler Boyd without DeAndre Hopkins, I’d like to tell you that I hope your 20-team, 3-FLEX league is going well for you.
Perhaps Will Levis’ AC joint sprain heals sooner rather than later, and perhaps that eventually gets Ridley targets that are better than prayer yards. Until we see either of those things happen, it’s hard to believe anyone but Hopkins is a fantasy winner in this trade.
