The Arizona Cardinals needed to address the wide receiver position this offseason and did so in a huge way.
The team picked up three-time All Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and in doing so upgraded the wide receiver position.
The question becomes how much?
Pro Football Focus looked at the wide receiver corps for each NFL team and ranked the groups.
The Cardinals made a big jump in their rankings:
12. ARIZONA CARDINALS
The biggest receiving acquisition of any team this offseason was the Cardinals bringing in DeAndre Hopkins for what was essentially a second-round draft pick. Hopkins is the third-highest-graded wide receiver in the NFL over the past five seasons, and he boasts one of the most reliable pairs of hands in the NFL with a drop rate of just 3.7% over that same stretch (sixth among qualifying wide receivers). One of the names above him in drop rate is his new teammate Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald doesn’t provide a whole lot of burst at this stage of his career, but he’s still a reliable target out of the slot in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. With Christian Kirk, Kenyan Drake out of the backfield and hopefully the emergence of a young speedster like Andy Isabella, the Cardinals’ passing offense is in good shape to continue its upward trend.
That’s a 12 spot jump in the rankings in one offseason with really only one move. That also means they expect an improvement from Kirk and the young players in Isabella, Johnson or Butler.
What we do know is the consistency displayed by Hopkins and Fitzgerald, the Cardinals have a nice tandem, who steps up will be the determination of how high this group can go.