The Arizona Cardinals made National Football League headlines on Friday with the decision to release star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins of Central, South Carolina according to Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports. Hopkins had spent the last three seasons in Arizona after starting his NFL career with the Houston Texans, where he spent seven seasons.

In 2022, Hopkins only played nine games as he was suspended six games for violating the NFL’s drug policy. He did go on to play nine games, and had 64 catches for 717 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cardinals have reportedly been trying to trade Hopkins for a while, but were unable to get a deal done. He was initially traded from the Texans to the Cardinals in a high profile deal on March 16, 2020. Running back David Johnson was the principal player dealt from Arizona to Houston at the time.

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The release comes after Hopkins comes after he missed organized team activities earlier this week. Hopkins was reportedly in Toronto to get his body examined, and was highly complimentary of the Canadian medical system. It should be noted that Hopkins missed the end of the 2021 NFL regular season with a torn medial collateral ligament.

In 145 NFL regular season games, Hopkins has 853 catches for 11298 receiving yards. A first round draft pick by the Texans in the 2013 NFL Draft, Hopkins has been selected to the Pro Bowl five times–2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 with Houston and 2020 with Arizona. During the 2017 NFL season, Hopkins led the NFL with a career-high 13 touchdown catches. Now it will be interesting to see if Arizona makes any more offseason moves in acquiring another offensive weapon to accommodate quarterback Kyler Murray.

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