DeAndre Hopkins traded to Chiefs: Fantasy football fallout

Over the past week, fantasy football content producers everywhere have united around a simple yet powerful message: Patrick Mahomes isn’t helping and can be dropped without regret.

After Wednesday’s trade sending DeAndre Hopkins to Kansas City, perhaps you will reevaluate the rest-of-season projection for the game’s best quarterback.

It was always likely that Mahomes would receive a lifeline ahead of the trade deadline and it finally happened this week. It’s possible Kansas City isn’t yet finished with enhancements to the receiving room. Mahomes has been an undeniable fantasy disappointment at his draft price, but let’s not pretend he isn’t still an actual magician playing quarterback. He’s been severely outgunned this year, force-feeding targets to a rogue gallery of receivers, yet the Chiefs sit at 6-0.

No matter what you think of Hopkins at this stage in his career, he’s clearly a significant upgrade to KC’s offense. The team had a screaming need for a reliable playmaking receiver capable of winning at multiple levels and in contested situations; the Chiefs just addressed that need at a reasonable cost. Mahomes gets a value boost.

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Hopkins is, of course, 32 years old and he entered this season with a knee issue, then was sidelined late in Week 7 by leg soreness, so it’s not as if there are no red flags attached. But the separation data actually looks just fine, in line with other brand-name receivers, and he’s caught over 70% of his targets from a pair of not-so-accurate passers this season. It’s tough to build a case that he’s completely washed.

Let’s recall that Hopkins managed to catch 75 balls last year and deliver over 1,000 yards in a dreadful offensive environment. He’s a winner in this deal, although it might be a bit much to expect him to make a fantasy splash immediately on Sunday against the Raiders. Consider him a WR4/5 for now, on his way to weekly WR3 status in the season’s second half, assuming good health.

We shouldn’t panic about the fantasy potential of any other members of the Chiefs receiving corps, because A) it’s not as if any of them were crushing anyway, and B) this is the sort of much-needed move that can elevate the potential of the offense as a whole. Xavier Worthy remains a low-volume, high-variance player who probably can’t help you unless he’s scoring touchdowns, and Travis Kelce remains an aging chain-mover focused on reaching playoffs at full health.

As for Tennessee, um … yikes. The quality of quarterback play has undermined everything and everyone to this point. Removing Hopkins from the mix does not obviously help any player in fantasy terms. If you’re genuinely excited about a few additional uncatchable targets for Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd or Chig Okonkwo, then we hope you’re playing in a league with 16 or more teams.

In fantasy football leagues of typical size and configuration, you should make no effort to get mixed up with the Titans at this time.