Skip to main content

DeAndre Hopkins watch is over


One of the NFL's most inexperienced receiving corps got a big boost Sunday, when free-agent DeAndre Hopkins agreed to join the Tennessee Titans.

Hopkins, who the Arizona Cardinals released in May, also had visited with the New England Patriots.

Ryan Tannehill is the incumbent at quarterback1, but the Titans also drafted Kentucky's Will Levis at the top of the second round of the 2023 NFL draft. That draft decision definitely will add intrigue to Titans training camp2.

Hopkins joins a receiving corps that finished the 2022 season with the fourth fewest receiving yards in the league. The move should help second-year receiver Treylon Burks − the Titans' first-round pick in 2022 − and prevent opposing defenses from stacking the line of scrimmage in an attempt to stop star running back Derrick Henry.

The Tennessean's Gentry Estes writes that the move to sign Hopkins shows that the Titans still consider themselves a realistic contender in the AFC.

Training camp dates

Great news, football fans: Some NFL training camps open this week!

➤ PHOTOS: NFL offseason workouts

More from around the NFL

Ask Coach Steve! New advice column for sports parents

Longtime Paste BN writer and editor Steve Borelli offers tips and insight for those who are raising athletes of all ages🏈⚽⚾🏀🥎🏐. Steve is the father of two boys who compete at the high school and middle school levels and he played high school and collegiate sports himself. Steve writes a weekly column and answers your questions. You can ask questions at sborelli@usatoday.com or on Twitter @StephenBorelli.

If you enjoy reading 4th & Monday 📰, encourage your football fan friends to subscribe 📱. Follow the casually cordial writer of this newsletter on Threads @jimreineking 🧵.

1 Ryan Tannehill is in the final year of a four-year contract that he signed in 2020.

2 Titans rookies report for training camp on July 22, while veteran report on July 25.

3 This will be the second time that the Jets will be featured on HBO's "Hard Knocks." The first time, of course, was famous for a speech made by then-head coach Rex Ryan, one of the most iconic moments in the show's history.

4 Yes, Kirk Cousins' famous "You like that!" yell from the 2015 season made the show.

5 This is a feat of home-field futility not seen in North American major sports since the 1953 St. Louis Browns. The next season, the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.