DeAndre Hopkins to the Cleveland Browns could be the right fit

DeAndre Hopkins had some of his best seasons when he played for the Houston Texans. His quarterback during that span was Deshaun Watson, who is currently with the Cleveland Browns. Hopkins was released by the Arizona Cardinals this past week in a bit of a surprise move.

Now teams like the Browns are being suggested as possible landing spots for the five-time Pro Bowler. Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports recently placed the Browns as a dark horse candidate to land Hopkins. In addition, Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer recently wrote that the move for Watson's former teammate would be a good idea.

Cleveland already has a full wide receiver room but not a lot of established talent. They have Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones and they’ve added veteran Marquise Goodwin in free agency and traded for the youngster Elijah Moore from the New York Jets.

It would seem from the outside looking in that the Browns don't need another wide receiver. However, Hopkins is not your ordinary wide receiver. He’s a Pro Bowler and First-Team All-Pro. He'll certainly help some new team out this season — so why not the Browns?

The Browns need to be all in on reaching a Super Bowl. While the cost for such a player might be a bit steep it could be worth it.

Cleveland has managed to bring in some high-profile players recently. They picked up defensive end Za’Darius Smith, defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, and safety Juan Thornhill. So depth and talent might finally be in place for Cleveland to take a run at that elusive Lombardi Trophy. 

One interesting side note to this whole story is that Hopkins currently doesn't have an agent or at least not a certified agent and the NFL has made it known to the rest of the teams across the league that they shouldn't be dealing with any non-certified agents. Hopkins supposedly has an agent by the name of Saint Omni who is somewhat of a mysterious personality.

No one seems to know very much about this guy and has made for some interesting discussions as far as who’s really helping Hopkins with whatever his next deal will look like with his next team.

The Cardinals releasing Hopkins means they ate the rest of his contract. He was already paid $42.75 million in guarantees at his signing back in 2020 and was guaranteed $60 million overall from that dead contract.

Certainly, Hopkins will still be demanding a high amount of money. However, Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry has been creative in signing veterans over the last few weeks. I'd imagine the team has been looking into this process again to see if they could make it work.

While Cleveland doesn't seem like they need much more support with their offensive unit, not seriously considering bringing in a long-time teammate of Watson like Hopkins, who had his best years playing catch with him can't be undersold.