1. See post 114 and 133 for his practice habits or lack thereof. It also references how he can be a diva and malcontent which plays into 2 and 3 above.
2. I dont think he is still a top WR. And we already gpt Moore to be our AJ Brown. There simply are not enough targets to go around IMO hence why I doubt he seriously considers us even though he may consider Houston. Houston has Robert Woods and not much else.
3. Poles and Flus likely give a shit if it is going to disrupt the culture. It is a young team. Don't think it makes sense to bring in a potential diva WR who isnt elite anymore if the end result is he and the other WRs are not happy about the amount of balls they are getting.
So no I dont think adding a diva WR makes sense for the culture Poles is trying to build especially when he is no longer good enough to warrant the number of balls he likely expects to get to the detriment of younger players who are more likely to buy in and be here longer term.
If he were still a true No 1 and could play nice then fuck it but if he were a true No 1 still he would already be signed.
1. He was still a top 10 WR when he got back from his suspension. I get the practice concerns but if Hopkins can still outperform the majority of the league's WR's with poor practice habits and having a backup QB throw to him in all but 4 of the games he was active for...than I would say it is safe to say his practice habits probably aren't that bad. But he isn't as big of a diva as some are portraying him as.
2. You may not think he is still a top WR, but his actual production shows that he still is...even with Colt McCoy, Trace McSorley, and David Blough as his QB. Moore is not on the level as Brown....Moore is good and he will be fine here, but a Moore/Hopkins combo would be infinitely better than a Moore/Mooney combo. No coach is going to say that they would pass on Hopkins because they like Moore and Mooney better. My point about Brown was Philly went from a low volume in passing to their top guys to having Brown and Smith have over 100 targets a piece. Teams will find targets for their studs, the Bears did not have a stud in that WR room to warrant a high target volume. And Houston would be an even longer shot than the Bears to get Hopkins, Hopkins has expressed wanting to go to a contender Houston is not that, along with being traded from Houston, doesnt seem like the best fit for what he wants.
3. This is a business, a business that thrives off of winning and not off of making mediocre at best players happy. But if players like Claypool or Mooney or Kmet are going to get pissed that they lost out on targets to an All-Pro WR than they aren't looking out for the best interest in the team and are more worried about their own personal stats. Players like them know their limitations, they know that at this point in their career a player like Hopkins will be first on the pecking order and they won't care about losing those targets to the better WR.
Again I don't know what the aversion Bears fans have to getting a proven stud at the WR position. He may be older but any contract he gets would not be a long term contract, so whoever signs him understands that his window is 2 years maybe 3. Which is why he is looking at contenders and not the Bears or Texans. He hasn't been signed not because teams are concerned but because he can take his time and choose the team he wants. This isn't day 1 of free agency where there is a frenzy to get players...Hopkins is going to end up signing with either the Chiefs or Bills and barring injury put up another top 10 season.
There isn't many teams that can look at Hopkins and say that he wouldn't make their WR instantly better. But like I have said before, Hopkins isn't coming here and it is because he doesn't see it as a good fit.
