When the trade came down for DeAndre Hopkins the Arizona Cardinals landed one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.
According to Hopkins, they landed the best wide receiver in the NFL.
Hopkins was on ESPN radios Jalen and & Jacoby on Thursday and said as much.
“I definitely think I’m the best. I know I’m the best. Mike’s my boy. I love [Saints wide receiver] Michael [Thomas] ... but he knows if I had Drew Brees my whole career what these numbers would be. [Falcons wide receiver] Julio Jones knows if I had Matt Ryan my whole career. That’s my boy. I trained with Julio, too. He knows what these numbers would be.”
This is something that has been missing with the Cardinals since Tyrann Mathieu was here.
While Chandler Jones is dominant on the field, while Larry Fitzgerald has been one of the best wide receivers in the NFL for a decade, neither speak with the brashness that Hopkins does.
However, he has been as dominant as either have and that is what the Cardinals need right now.
They have the quiet leaders, who do it the right way and do about their business on the field. Yet, they have lost the swagger that defined some of those great Bruce Arians teams.
No Mathieu, no Tony Jefferson, no Arians. They have lost the unrelenting belief in themselves and the bravado to talk about it.
They don’t have that guy in Kyler Murray and that is okay. Yet, they needed someone to bring it back and redefine the belief in this team.
Hopkins will help bring back the cockiness that fizzled in the Arians era and has been nowhere to be found since.
They need someone to not only believe in them, they need someone to tell them how good they can be.
Hopkins can do that, and his Hall of Fame trajectory means he has backed it up and then some.