In the wake of a medley of injuries to their wide receivers, the Kansas City Chiefs traded for veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins from the Tennessee Titans. Dropped in the majority of fantasy football leagues due to his dismal performance to start the season, should managers now pick Hopkins back up off the waiver wire ahead of Week 8?
Should DeAndre Hopkins Be Added Off the Fantasy Waiver Wire in Week 8?
By the time you’re reading this, it’s possible, if not likely, that Hopkins has already been scooped up in your league. Prior to this trade, he was rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues, which was completely understandable given his production — or lack thereof.
That number is already up to 71% and climbing.
Through seven weeks, Hopkins had posted a single game of more than 5.1 fantasy points. If his name weren’t DeAndre Hopkins, he would have been dropped long ago.
Of course, fantasy managers don’t entirely blame Hopkins for his struggles. Playing with Will Levis (and a little Mason Rudolph) at quarterback is not exactly a recipe for success.
At the same time, Hopkins is 32 years old and has shown obvious signs of decline.
The Chiefs just traded for DeAndre Hopkins. What kind of a receiver are they getting in him?
Using @FantasyPtsData's separation data, here is his 2023 and 2024 season separation data.
2024: Not great, Bob!
2023: Pretty great, Bob! pic.twitter.com/yuz6usncdv— Joseph Hefner (@josephjefe)
We’ve seen many great wide receivers fall off at age 32. If this is the end for Hopkins, it won’t at all be surprising.
With that said, even seemingly QB-independent metrics are influenced by team environment. The Titans do not roster an NFL-caliber starting quarterback. That matters.
There is definitely a world where Hopkins’ separation metrics suddenly look better now that he’s on a better team with a better quarterback.
Fantasy managers expecting 2018 DHop to walk through that door (if there are any of you out there) will be sorely disappointed. Hopkins is not the same guy he was at 26 years old, but that doesn’t mean he can’t reemerge into a useful fantasy asset now that his situation has vastly improved.
The Chiefs can’t stop losing wide receivers to injury. Hollywood Brown didn’t even make it to Week 1. Rashee Rice was lost a month into the season. Even JuJu Smith-Schuster only made it a week in his prominent role before straining his hamstring.
Evidently, the front office saw that Skyy Moore was forced to play 33 snaps last week and figured that wasn’t going to work.
Much like Amari Cooper last week, it’s unlikely Hopkins will be able to play a full complement of snaps, having just joined the team. But he will play. Plus, you’re not picking him up just for one week.
As a reminder, this is not the Chiefs’ offense we’ve grown accustomed to.
The Patrick Mahomes who threw for 5,000 yards with Tyreek Hill is gone (for now). Hopkins is not going to bring him back, but he will immediately be the best WR on the team.
The Chiefs don’t have any reinforcements on the way at WR, and Hopkins is the guy they hope provides them some stability. There’s a very real chance he provides weekly WR3 production, which is absolutely worthy of being on fantasy rosters.
We were all willing to take a chance on Smith-Schuster after Rice went down. We should be willing to take the same chance on Hopkins.
