The Tennessee Titans added multiple big pieces on offense this offseason. No longer the only game in town, will more weapons help or hurt DeAndre Hopkins’ fantasy football value? Should fantasy managers be looking at Hopkins late in Best Ball drafts?
DeAndre Hopkins’ 2024 Fantasy Outlook
Ever since leaving Houston, Hopkins’ offensive situations haven’t exactly gotten better. The five best seasons of his career all came with the Houston Texans.
Last year, things got especially bad for the future Hall of Famer. Hopkins, who was drafted in 2013, had his worst season since that year — averaging 13.2 fantasy points per game, finishing as the WR29.
Sadly, the reality is that Hopkins’ season was even worse than that. He scored 34.8 fantasy points in Week 8 and 25.4 in Week 14. In his other 15 games, Hopkins averaged 10.9 fantasy ppg. He posted nine games with 10.5 points or less and was far from a weekly starter in fantasy.
#Titans WR DeAndre Hopkins is coming ALIVE with Will Levis at QB 😳
The rookie-vet connection is heating up 🔥
3 touchdowns on the day!
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 29, 2023
Ironically, Hopkins’ usage was more in line with his early years than after he established himself as an elite receiver. He saw a fantastic 28.6% target share and was targeted on a whopping 27.8% of his routes run. Those numbers were 12th and ninth in the NFL, respectively.
Hopkins saw plenty of downfield targets, too. His 14.0 aDOT (average depth of target) was 15th in the league. Yet, he only averaged 7.8 yards per target. That was due to poor quarterback play resulting in a large percentage of uncatchable targets.
Hopkins was fortunate to post WR3 numbers while he was the only game in town. This year, the Titans’ offense is going to look much different.
Tennessee added Tony Pollard, who is a very capable pass catcher out of the backfield. More importantly, they gave Calvin Ridley a mega-contract to be their WR1.
There’s no way to paint all of this increased target competition as a positive for Hopkins. For him to thrive opposite Ridley, we will need considerable progression from sophomore QB Will Levis. But based on what he showed as a rookie, I’m not optimistic.
Should You Draft Hopkins in 2024 Best Ball Leagues?
When targeting late-round wide receivers, fantasy managers should be looking almost exclusively for upside. Typically, that involves targeting young players.
Hopkins is being drafted in the vicinity of several young receivers with unknown upside. In this case, that unknown is a good thing.
At the same time, Hopkins is one of the best wide receivers of the past decade. Even at 32 years old, I wouldn’t put it past him to put together one final renaissance season.
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Furthermore, Hopkins is being drafted about six spots after Ridley. Focusing purely on the two Titans WRs, I would prefer Hopkins straight-up. Best Ball drafters are allowing fantasy managers to get the better wide receiver at a lower price.
Hopkins is probably not going to return to being a weekly WR2. But in Best Ball, it’s good enough if he can post a couple of boom weeks. That’s certainly still in his wheelhouse. As a result, fantasy managers should be willing to push the button on Hopkins if they’re not enamored with the younger wide receivers around him.
