The Cleveland Browns just dealt wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try to replace him.
It is easy to view the decision as Cleveland punting on the season. However, one can also look at the deal as maximizing the value of a receiver who wasn’t doing enough to help the team win this year and who was probably on his way out regardless come next spring.
The Browns gave up Cooper and a sixth-round pick in 2025 for a third-round selection next year as well as a seventh-rounder in 2026. So, for all intents and purposes, the Browns basically flipped the star wideout for a third-rounder and the slightly worse end of what will most likely prove to be a minimally consequential sixth/seventh-round pick swap.
That’s probably a win for Cleveland, and it doesn’t preclude them from jumping back into conversations for another of several wideouts who may be on the move ahead of the league’s November 5 deadline.
Among the names receiving the most buzz in recent days is five-time All-Pro DeAndre Hopkins of the Tennessee Titans, who was teammates with Browns QB Deshaun Watson as members of the Houston Texans across multiple Pro Bowl seasons for both players.
DeAndre Hopkins Trade Makes Sense for Browns as Current, Future Play
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report laid out the case on Wednesday, October 16, for Hopkins to land with the Browns via a trade.
“Trading wideout DeAndre Hopkins could benefit the Titans in a couple of ways. For one, it would free up opportunities for the disgruntled [Calvin] Ridley. Secondly, it would allow Tennessee to cash in a player who probably won’t stick around in 2025,” Knox wrote. “With Cooper no longer in Cleveland, could the Browns look to reunite Watson and Hopkins? We wouldn’t dismiss the idea.”
However, the rub is that the idea only makes sense if Cleveland wants to extend Hopkins on a multiyear deal and believes it can accomplish that goal. Hopkins, playing in his age-32 season, is in the final year of a two-year, $26 million contract in Tennessee.
His cap hit will come off the books when he becomes an unrestricted free agent next spring, but his trade market isn’t likely to be much lower than Cooper’s was. That means the cost to Cleveland, beyond roughly half of Hopkins $8 million-plus base salary in 2024, is likely to be a draft pick somewhere between the third and fifth rounds in 2025.
Browns Need No. 1 WR for Deshaun Watson This Year, Possibly for Rookie QB in 2025
Hopkins must return to Cleveland in 2025 and beyond to make that kind of cost worth it to the Browns — and there is an argument to be made that Hopkins is worth the play, whether Watson remains under center next season or not.
Cleveland probably hasn’t given up on its chances to make the playoffs this season. Thus, adding Hopkins makes the odds at least a little bit better that the franchise can achieve that unlikely outcome.
The Browns still owe Watson the balance of his $230 million contract, which they fully guaranteed and which runs through 2026. They can’t cut him or bench him and get any of that money back, which commits the team to a win-now strategy with an otherwise expensive roster outside of the QB position. If Cleveland wants to win, it needs to add a true No. 1 wideout to that roster because Jerry Jeudy simply ain’t that.
And trading for Hopkins doesn’t have to be about doing Watson any favors. If the 2025 draft were held today, the Browns would select No. 2 overall. That should give them access to any number of quality NCAA QBs, including the likes of Cam Ward (Miami) and Shedeur Sanders (Colorado).
Drafting a quality quarterback early and paying him on a rookie salary, albeit one of the most expensive ones of the 2025 class, is Cleveland’s only real path toward excising itself from a scenario in which Watson starts for the next two and a half years. And adding a player like Hopkins to help that rookie QB develop and succeed at the NFL level is the best way for the Browns to avoid another bust under center.
