DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Arizona Cardinals
I still cannot believe that the Houston Texans made this move…
But from DeAndre Hopkins’s position, this is a great opportunity to flourish in a different offensive system. Bill O’Brien relied heavily on play-action designs and vertical concepts, and ran the football on 42 percent of Houston’s offensive snaps last season. However, they also mixed in some spread and some empty formations last year, as a way to get Deshaun Watson some quick reads and to create some mismatches and opportunities for Hopkins:
Take note of the coverage over Hopkins. Atlanta shows a Cover 4 alignment pre-snap with a safety giving Hopkins a ton of cushion. Watson spots this before the play, and comes right to Hopkins on a quick post route that the QB throws with pretty good timing and anticipation.
This kind of spread offense is what Hopkins will be entering next season with the Cardinals. Under Kliff Kingsbury, Arizona has been a spread-heavy, 10 personnel team that plays with tempo and throws the ball a ton. Last year they threw the ball on 60.4 percent of their offensive plays, putting them in the top half of the league and certainly more than the Texans. Kingsbury is going to spread the defense out, create space by alignment and mismatches by formation, and he is going to attack through the air. The offense is going to look a lot like the above example, and Hopkins is going to see a ton of targets as a result. Especially if they select a wide receiver with that eighth-overall selection.