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No, Cardinal receiver DeAndre Hopkins is not holding out. Of course he is not; he is in camp with the team that traded for him in March.
The real question is this: does Hopkins hold up?
It is a dynamic that is far from rare, even though it is rarely talked about. A player who wants a new contract generally appears for practices but refuses to engage in padded practices until he gets what he wants. In most cases, there is an injury that the player technically does not consider fit to participate, but that is, as a practical matter, something that can set him up for a bigger problem along the way, at a time when he is financially at risk of a major injury.
If the player gets the contract he wants, he will gladly take the risk of practicing or playing at a percentage below 100. Until then, he is not ready to roll the dice over the kind of physical limitation that would prevent him from he wants to get around.
It’s no secret that Hopkins wants to reshape the market at the receiving end, from an annual average of $ 16.2 million to slightly more than the Julio Jones new money average of $ 22 million per year. That’s why the Texans traded Jones, and the Cardinals embraced Hopkins knowing that Hopkins wanted a new deal.
He did not get one. Along the way, he parted ways with CAA, technically he just went through it. Even if he is not. Some believe Hopkins is using the same team that Texans Laremy Tunsil hired to get his three-year, $ 66 million expansion: Business manager Laolu Sanni and advisor Pete “Saint” Riley.
Whatever the approach, Hopkins has yet to get the contract he desires. He certainly could not bear to get it. But it turns out he’s probably keeping an eye on them.
Given that NFL teams have so many tools available when it comes to dealing with trading issues with their players, there is nothing wrong with players taking advantage of whatever charge they have. For any player looking for greater financial security, refusing to practice as a minor injury could become a much greater injury is one way to gain that security.
