Plenty of people were taken by surprise when they heard that the Texans traded wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals last month, but Hopkins wasn’t one of them.
Hopkins spoke to the media on Friday for the first time since the trade became official and said that talk of a trade had been swirling around since last year. He added that he’d heard enough about it to start planning for his departure from Houston.
“It wasn’t a big surprise. I was preparing for it,” Hopkins said, via Kyle Odegard of the team’s website.
Texans coach Bill O’Brien pointed to Hopkins’ desire for a new contract as the driving factor behind the deal. Hopkins said on Friday, via multiple reporters, that he’ll let his agent and the team handle contract matters while he works to settle in with his new team during its virtual offseason program.