In the days leading up to your favorite team’s game on Sunday, do you ever look at the opposing team’s roster and feel a hint of jealousy? Is there a certain player that you know will be lining up against your team, and you’re afraid of the kind of destruction they could cause?
For fans of the Washington Football Team, that feeling may be abundant this week as they prepare to take on the Arizona Cardinals. While Arizona has yet to put all of the pieces together with this new roster and find real success just yet, this very well could be the year that they do so, with budding players in Kyler Murray and Kenyon Drake, and established stars in DeAndre Hopkins and Budda Baker.
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So in a fictional world where Washington could pick any player on Arizona’s roster to switch sides for a week, who would they choose?
Nuke, come on down!
After being traded from the Houston Texans to AZ this offseason, there were questions about whether or not Hopkins could continue his reign as one of the best WRs in the NFL while working with a young QB who he’s built little chemistry with. DeAndre put all of those worries to rest in Week 1, hauling in 14 passes from Murray and dominating throughout the game.
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Nuke is an extremely nice piece for Arizona, and he is exactly what Washington is missing on offense at the moment. With the roster as it is currently constructed, there is little confidence in any receiver outside of Terry McLaurin, which leads to defenses ability to key on him constantly throughout the game, smothering the second-year WR with double teams and forcing Dwayne Haskins to look elsewhere. If you were to bring Hopkins to D.C., it would immediately open up the offense and give Haskins one of the best receiving threats in the entire league.
Much like Hopkins has been able to learn from an established vet and future Hall-of-Famer like Larry Fitzgerald, McLaurin could step into a mentee role under Nuke as well. As an average-sized receiver with quick feet, crisp routes, and incredible hands, who better to learn from for Terry?
Of course, this is a made-up world where we get what we want upon simply asking for it, which is something that would never happen. When we tune in on Sunday, though, it’s going to be hard to find a player in Arizona that would better fit the Washington offense than Hopkins.
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