The Titans and Chiefs are moving to finalize a deal that will send big receiver DeAndre Hopkins to Kansas Town, league resources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Titans will receive a 2025 fifth-round pick that will become a fourth-round pick if the Chiefs reach the Super Bowl and Hopkins plays 60% of the snaps for Kansas Town, sources said. Tennessee will also receive $2.5 million of Hopkins’ $8 million excess salary this season, sources said. The deal is expected to be completed by Wednesday.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid declined to identify the company before Wednesday, saying only general manager Brett Veach was “taking care of all that.” When asked about the business, Reid said with a small smile: “I don’t know anything.”
The Chiefs have had a wide receiver need since Rashee Rice suffered a bruised right knee on Day 4 that required season-ending surgical treatment. The team lost Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to a shoulder injury in the preseason, and JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered a serious hamstring injury that has already ruled him out for Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Hopkins, a 12-year veteran, is in the final season of a two-year trade he signed with the Titans in July 2023. He suffered a torn MCL during the offseason, but recovered within a week for the first game of the season.
He has 15 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown in six games in 2024. The five-time Pro Bowler also played for the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals.
The addition offers quarterback Patrick Mahomes any other target. Mahomes said he had “extreme confidence” within the Chiefs’ receiving corps following the trades of two notable receivers: Davante Adams (traded to the Jets) and Amari Cooper (received via Expenses).
But Kansas Town’s healthiest wide receivers, rookie Xavier Valuable and Justin Watson, have a combined 22 receptions through Day 7.
“I think the most important thing is getting to the coaches. The coaches do a great job of getting guys up to speed, and you’ve seen that this year,” Mahomes said Wednesday. “I just try to be on the same page as the guys that are there.”
Landing a big receiver before the trade deadline has had an effect for the Chiefs in each of the current two seasons. They managed the unused York Giants for Kadarius Toney in 2022, and Toney scored one touchdown and set up another with a 65-yard punt return in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chiefs traded the unused York Jets for Mecole Hardman during an extreme year. Hardman scored the successful touchdown in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers.
For the 1-5 Titans, who also traded linebacker Ernest Jones IV to the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday for linebacker Jerome Baker and a fourth-round pick, the moves constitute a metamorphosis in plans, teacher Brian Callahan said.
“It’s the reality of the NFL business, and when you’re in a situation that we’re in, one that we didn’t want to be in,” Callahan said. “When you get to these meeting points in the season, things like this happen. That’s the cycle, how it works. And now we’re in a situation trying to find a way to move forward.”
