DeAndre Hopkins prepares for future as his own agent for mega-deal

Hopkins is thinking about life after playing already. (USA TODAY Sports-Kevin Jairaj)

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Fri Sep 11 11:45:09 GMT-04:00 2020

It's been an offseason of change for DeAndre Hopkins.

Hopkins has a new pro home to begin his eighth season in the NFL after the Houston Texans traded him to the Arizona Cardinals.

And now, thanks to his own negotiations, the Daniel High School product is the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history to the tune of $27.25 million per year, with $42.75 million in guaranteed money.

Hopkins told reporters over a video call this week that he took the reins on negotiating to prepare for a potential front-office future.

“It’s ownership and me believing in myself and my abilities to study the terminology of contracts and me knowing where I want to be after football,” Hopkins said. “I know one day I want to be a part of an organization and help build it, so I feel like this was a good time to learn and study everything that hopefully, I’ll one day be doing.

“I think also just showing other players that you can get things done yourself if you believe in yourself and have the right team around you. Agents are great. There’s never no knock on the agent or nothing against the agent that I had previously. There was no bad ties with them. It was just something that I wanted to do myself.”

In addition to the big figures, Hopkins also received a no-trade and a no-franchise-tag clause for the 28-year-old's contract.

Per the Arizona Republic, players negotiating their own contracts is nothing new, including new teammate Larry Fitgerald and former teammate Laremy Tunsil.

“There was a lot of reading, a lot of nights staying up late learning the language and terminology of everything,” Hopkins said. “My advisers, my team that I had, those guys are with me and have been with me for years now. They’re not just advisers, but also family and mentors to me.

“It’s a small group of people but we knew this is what we wanted to do going forward and we made it happen.”

Hopkins left Clemson after his junior season and parlayed that into a first-round selection from the Texans in 2013. He is still tied for the Clemson career TD mark (27). Hopkins ranks second in single-season marks for receiving yards (1,405) and receiving yards per game (108.1) and overall 100-yard games (12) and receiving yards (3,020).

Hopkins has earned four Pro Bowl trips and three All-Pro team honors in the NFL with 54 touchdowns in 632 catches for 8,602 yards.