The New England Patriots get more competition in the race to sign DeAndre Hopkins
The ongoing mystery of where DeAndre Hopkins will end up signing for the 2023 season just got more interesting, as ESPN's Jeremey Fowler revealed the Patriots and Titans are not the only ones with the receiver on their radar still.
Although Hopkins has only visited New England and Tennessee, Fowler shared that the Chiefs have allegedly remained in contact with him, and the only thing holding them back from getting a deal done is the money.
Fortunately, that works in the Patriots' favor for now.
New England has had enough cap space to sign a big name for weeks now but created a reported $2.4 million more with DeVante Parker's contract extension last week. They added a smidge more by extending Ja'Whaun Bentley as well, just not enough to make a significant impact overall.
Parker’s extension created $2,519,584 in cap space while Bentley’s created $266,667 for a total of $2,786,251 https://t.co/ZqZ53Z1adY
— Miguel Benzan Patriots Cap Space is 16,932,236 (@patscap) July 7, 2023
Kansas City, on the other hand, sit with just over $400,000 in their bank, aka nowhere near the amount it would take to sign a guy like Hopkins.
On the surface, that's excellent news for the Patriots and the Titans since they both had enough to get a deal done yesterday. But the Chiefs are the only team of the trio to be contenders for a deep postseason run or winning a Super Bowl, which Hopkins has talked about wanting to accomplish with his next team.
That makes it seem fair to assume he would be willing to take far less money to go to a contender than take the big paycheck to continue on the same path he's followed his entire career.
The problem the Chiefs run into, though, is trying to determine a way to create more space. Fowler mentioned extending Chris Jones since he is due over $28 million in 2023, which seems like the easiest route to take, but he also said he sees that happening closer to training camp or even later.
Would Hopkins be willing to wait that long for a what-if? It's possible, especially since they offer the highest chance of winning.
However, if he is still interested in signing with New England, where he reportedly had a great visit, then Bill Belichick may need to up the ante and offer more money or something of the sort to get the Chiefs off Hopkins' mind.
That won't be easy to do, given the massive difference in the two team's predicted futures, but if Belichick wants to have the best shot at winning this season, this feels like a move that must get done.