After Monti Ossenfort was hired as the Cardinals’ General Manager last month, he said that he would be evaluating wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins‘ status with the organization in the coming weeks.
It’s been a little more than a month since Ossenfort made that comment, but his answer about Hopkins’ future hasn’t changed much. During an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7 Thursday, Ossenfort said that he’s spoken with Hopkins and that the team is still taking preliminary steps when it comes to making any decisions about who will be on the roster.
“I had a great talk with D-Hop a couple weeks ago,” Ossenfort said. “It was great, I kinda just explained to him what my philosophy was. It was a great conversation. D-Hop’s been a great player in this league for a long time. I’m excited to work with him. I think any roster decisions like that, we’re in the very early stages right now. From afar, I’ve had to compete against, not me personally, but I’ve been on teams that have to compete against D-Hop, I know what a problem and a stress he puts on defenses. I’m excited to have D-Hop on the team. Whether it pertains to D-Hop’s situation or anyone’s situation, we are in the stages of evaluating that but I’m excited that D-Hop is on the team with me right now.”
There’s limited cap relief — $8.15 million vs. $22.6 million in dead money — for the Cardinals to realize with a pre-June 1 trade of Hopkins, but the right offer for his services might be of interest for a Cardinals team that’s charting a new course with Oseenfort and new head coach Jonathan Gannon this offseason.