Cardinals announce they have released Hopkins - Signed with Titans

schutd

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Monti wasn’t forced to cut bait. He just didn’t accept the true market value of Hop
I dont understand this viewpoint. He's been on the market for months. If no teams are able to take on his salary, its not overvaluing him. Its bad timing. Im sure before they released him, theyd have taken anything. but no one is in position to absorb his salary. Or am I missing something? There was no market not because he has no value. There was no market because he was too expensive. I dont think Id have absorbed his salary just to get a mid round pick in return, So in the end, what other options were there? Certainly not having him on the team. He burned that bridge. Hell, one could argue he lowered his own value.
 

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If nothing changes by Tuesday that means the Cardinals may have played chicken with the NFL’s other teams and lost (I know that sounds ornithologically wrong). If they haven’t changed the rules once Hopkins played a game the Cards were on the hook for his $9 mil salary. The option was to hold fast, hoping for a WR injury that would lead to a significant draft choice trade. It’s true it was a gamble. Bidwill would have to man up and risk the $9 mil, if he has it. If the injury happened the prorated salary would have moved to the acquiring team. The Cards would have been even stronger in 2024. Worst case scenario, Murray would have had a fair shot at success with a solid receiving corps.

???

$19m salary in 2023!
 

82CardsGrad

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2-15 with him, 2-15 without him
I think we would’ve won more than 2 games with him, but likely less than 5…
Without him, this team will struggle to win 2, which… puts us squarely in a possible position to win the Caleb Williams race? Hmmmmm…
 

football karma

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give Hopkins credit: he knew that the best way to max his comp is to become an unrestricted free agent.

He had two non guaranteed salary years left on his contract and didnt want to be a one-year rental for some contending team

His $19mm 2023 salary is (semi) affordable -- and an acquiring team could give up a 3rd, get a year out of him by converting a giant chunk of the salary to a bonus, reduce his 2023 cap hit to ~$10mm, and then cut him next year. At that point, Hop would be a 32 year old WR with much lower demand.

He made clear to any team acquiring him in a trade that they would have to meet his contract expectations --

His position was "dont trade for me unless you are ready to pay me what I (think) am worth" -- which effectively killed his trade value.

so -- become a UFA and gets the best deal he can. We will see if that is better than the $10mm or so he was scheduled to get in 2023.
 
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RON_IN_OC

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give Hopkins credit: he knew that the best way to max his comp is to become an unrestricted free agent.

He had two non guaranteed salary years left on his contract and didnt want to be a one-year rental for some contending team

His $10mm 2023 salary is VERY affordable -- and an acquiring team could give up a 3rd, get a year out of him at a cheap cap hit of $10mm, and then cut him next year. At that point, Hop would be a 32 year old WR with much lower demand.

He made clear to any team acquiring him in a trade that they would have to meet his contract expectations --

His position was "dont trade for me unless you are ready to pay me what I (think) am worth" -- which effectively killed his trade value.

so -- become a UFA and gets the best deal he can. We will see if that is better than the $10mm or so he was scheduled to get in 2023.
The only issue for him will be that history also shows when players become UFA due to $$ issues and what THEY think they are worth, often they end up taking a lower 1 year deal, to try and reset their value...Don't need to look any farther than the Honey Badger. He has as much of a chance of not getting paid, as he does getting the $$ he thinks he's worth.
 

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