The morning after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 27-20, new Chiefs receiver DeAndre Hopkins posted a message regarding his Week 8 KC debut.
“… just getting started,” Hopkins wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on October 28 in response to a video posted of his first reception in a Chiefs uniform.
In the win over Las Vegas, Hopkins played 23 snaps on offense — 32% of the team’s total offensive snaps in Week 8 — and registered two catches on three targets for 29 yards. It was a strong outing for a player who was signed less than a week before Kansas City faced the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
“I thought he did a great job,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of Hopkins during his postgame press conference. “Obviously [on] 3rd down [he] hit a big catch early in the game, and then he had a couple other big plays. I missed him on the one corner route early but still got open, and as I looked back at the tablet there was a couple times where in man coverage he was just really working and winning. Even the touchdown to Trav [Travis Kelce] I threw, if you look back on his side, he’s open, too, for a touchdown there.
“Now that you see that, obviously I know the type of player he is, but you see that on the field, it shows that if they’re going to play man coverage against him, he’s going to get open, and I have to give him chances to go out there and make plays.”
Patrick Mahomes: DeAndre Hopkins a Perfect Fit for Chiefs Offense
After the game, Mahomes praised Hopkins’ ability to find the soft spots in zone coverage and exploit them, which is a key to success in Kansas City’s passing offense.
“Yeah, honestly, it’s high-level stuff just because it was zone coverage. They kind of were in the right spot. He pulled up in the right window, stuff you see Trav do a lot, you see JuJu [Smith-Schuster] do a lot,” Mahomes explained. “I was able to throw the ball, and I’ve kind of talked about it a little bit. He has good body language when he runs routes, so you can kind of tell what he’s going to do before he does it. We’d only practiced that play I think once, maybe twice, and for 3rd down in that situation, for him to run it and be in the right position, it shows that he’s going to fit in perfectly in this offense.”
Hopkins’ next opportunity to play a full-time role on offense for the Chiefs is in Week 9 when the two-time defending Super Bowl champions host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football.
X Users Reacted to Deandre Hopkins’ Chiefs Debut
Users on X reacted to Hopkins’ Chiefs debut in Week 8.
“DeAndre Hopkins fitting into this offense is like finding that last puzzle piece—in the couch, 3 weeks later,” one person wrote. “But hey, better late than never, right?”
“Xavier Worthy blossoming. DeAndre Hopkins looking healthy. Travis Kelce still has the juice. Hollywood Brown pushing for a playoff comeback. This Chiefs passing attack could wind up being scary,” Adam Best of Arrowhead Addict wrote.
