DeAndre Hopkins won't be leaving Houston next offseason. On Thursday, the Texans gave their WR1 a five-year contract extension that includes the largest guarantee for any receiver in the league, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Texans signing WR DeAndre Hopkins to a 5-year contract extension, per sources. Will include largest guarantee for any WR in NFL.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 31, 2017
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that the extension is worth $81 million with $49 million guaranteed. Julio Jones of the Falcons previously made the most guaranteed money out of all receivers with $35.5 million guaranteed at signing, per Spotrac. So, Hopkins cleared that mark fairly easily.
His contract was set to expire after the season, which makes the Texans' decision to extend Hopkins a no-brainer. He's one of the best receivers in the league. And he's only 25 years old. In his four-year career, he's averaged roughly 79 catches, 1,122 yards, and six touchdowns per season, and he's never missed a game. Since he entered the league in 2013, he ranks sixth in receiving yards among all receivers.
Here's where it's worth pointing out that Hopkins has been saddled with some terrible quarterbacks throughout his career like Matt Schaub, T.J. Yates, Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mallett, Tom Savage, Brian Hoyer, Brandon Weeden, and of course the very tall, but very bad Brock Osweiler.
DeAndre Hopkins has caught a TD pass from 8 different passers in his 1st 4 seasons, t-most in NFL history (Jim Benton).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 4, 2017
via @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/RJWHtZBOsp
Hopefully, for Hopkins' sake, rookie Deshaun Watson proves to be worth the first-round pick the Texans used to draft him this spring, because it'd be fun to see what he can do with a competent quarterback.
Even if Watson doesn't develop into a worthy quarterback, Hopkins should be OK. He doesn't need an accurately thrown ball to make catches:
Hopkins makes receptions that no other receiver in the league makes pic.twitter.com/v9614NbEEp
— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) September 23, 2016
Nuk marched to the DB like one of those British shoulders with the funny hats. Such disrespect😂 pic.twitter.com/wJeP3WVLc3
— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) January 2, 2017
Hopkins is so smooth that you'd likely miss a lot of what he's doing if just casually watching: pic.twitter.com/0CteEuboNp
— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) January 23, 2016
Hopkins wasn't the only Texans player to get a huge contract on Thursday. So did tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz, who is going to make about $7 million per season, according to the Houston Chronicle's Aaron Wilson. Fiedorowicz has caught six touchdowns in his three-year career.