Hopkins released by Arizona (7/16: signed by Titans)

[BillsFanForever19]

4 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

 

Love how he spent the entire offseason talking about needing all these things, a stud QB paramount amongst them. And in his first visit, he goes to the team that has Ryan Tannehill or Will Levis throwing to him.

 

That said, Tennessee definitely needs him. They spent a 1st on Treylon Burks last year who may develop into something, but didn't start the league on fire as a Rookie and.... like literally nothing else.

 

Seriously, here's who they have:

 

WR:

16 Treylon Burks

19 Jacob Copeland

14 Colton Dowell

82 Tre'Shaun Harrison

84 Gavin Holmes

10 Kearis Jackson

12 Mason Kinsey

13 Racey McMath

11 Chris Moore

18 Kyle Philips

80 Reggie Roberson

15 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

 

TE:

87 Alizé Mack

89 Thomas Odukoya

85 Chigoziem Okonkwo

86 Kevin Rader

83 Justin Rigg

88 Trevon Wesco

81 Josh Whyle

 

WOOF!

[Solomon Grundy]

5 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Agent sabre rattling

6 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

And in his first visit, he goes to the team that has Ryan Tannehill or Will Levis throwing to him.

NUFF SAID

[BuffaloBillyG]

5 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Yea, well Leslie Frazier has met with THREE teams. 

 

 

[BillsFanForever19]

4 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

NUFF SAID

 

If he's visiting that team in the state they're in now, they must be offering pretty good money.

 

The hope is it isn't so much more than our offer that having Josh and the team we have makes up for the difference.

 

But I'd imagine Tennessee knows they'd have to not only pay market value, but probably overpay to get him and the difference monetarily between the two offers will probably be too much for him to come back to ours.

[Pabstblueribbon]

Taxes Though. NY vs TN 

 

I can def see why the titans would be interested too. 

[thenorthremembers]

9 minutes ago, Pabstblueribbon said:

Taxes Though. NY vs TN 

 

I can def see why the titans would be interested too. 

He's made 114 million dollars in his career and only made it out of the wild card round of the playoffs twice in ten years. 

 

If taxes really play into a decision between playing with either Josh Allen or Ryan Tannehill, Id say his mind is in the wrong place.

[FLFan]

The continuing fascination with Hopkins is becoming laughable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that he showing himself to be the opposite of the type of player who might put the Bills over the top.  

[BarleyNY]

12 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

He's made 114 million dollars in his career and only made it out of the wild card round of the playoffs twice in ten years. 

 

If taxes really play into a decision between playing with either Josh Allen or Ryan Tannehill, Id say his mind is in the wrong place.

Yup. I got a back channel tidbit that I’m sure just about everyone has already figured out themselves, but I’ll put it here for validation purposes. To date Hopkins is not happy with the contract offers he has received. However several teams are interested if he accepts the reality of his market. Two of those teams are the Ravens and Browns as Lamar and Watson have both my made it known that they’d like Hopkins added. I would think the Bills, KC, Dallas and the Giants are others, but that’s speculation. No word on the spread of current offers either. Just that all are significantly below what he was expecting.

 

The trip to Nashville makes sense in this context. If he gets a better offer there, then his agent can shop it to his preferred destinations just like OBJ did. 

[NewEra]

12 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

Huh?

He doesn’t care about winningZ. Only $

[Warriorspikes51]

Him coming here would have a ripple effect in the locker room and the player focus on winning. I believe it would really benefit Diggs, especially late in the season/playoffs 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Warriorspikes51

[JohnBonhamRocks]

6 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Him coming here would have a ripple effect in the locker room and the player focus on winning. I believe it would really benefit Diggs, especially late in the season/playoffs 

For me, yes it’s about improving WR2, but it’s also about having our season not necessarily be sunk by Diggs missing any extended time.

 

You think there’s a lot of Gabe Davis discussions now? Let’s hope what I said above never happens.

[DCofNC]

17 minutes ago, NewEra said:

He doesn’t care about winningZ. Only $

Everyone cares about the bottom line at the end of the day.  If the offer from TN or others is considerably larger than what he can get from a real contender, he may well choose to take it and I don’t blame him.  If it’s a trivial difference and he chooses to take the same offer from TN vs Buffalo bc of taxes, then yeah, he’s not really in it to win (even though 11% of a contract in taxes is no joke). 

[Irv]

Hopkins is a fine football player.  

[Shaw66]

12 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

Everyone cares about the bottom line at the end of the day.  If the offer from TN or others is considerably larger than what he can get from a real contender, he may well choose to take it and I don’t blame him.  If it’s a trivial difference and he chooses to take the same offer from TN vs Buffalo bc of taxes, then yeah, he’s not really in it to win (even though 11% of a contract in taxes is no joke). 

I just jumped in and dont know if someone said this, but it's not 11% of the contract.  I assume 11% is the NYS highest tax rate.  He'd pay NYS tax only on the games he plays in NYS, so that's half his games.  So, coming to Buff over Tenn would cost him 5.5%, not 11%.  

[Solomon Grundy]

29 minutes ago, Irv said:

Hopkins is a fine football player.  

RIP Commander Tom Jolls

[BuffaloBillyG]

21 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I just jumped in and dont know if someone said this, but it's not 11% of the contract.  I assume 11% is the NYS highest tax rate.  He'd pay NYS tax only on the games he plays in NYS, so that's half his games.  So, coming to Buff over Tenn would cost him 5.5%, not 11%.  

That still adds up to a hefty chunk of change when you're talking about a contract the size of what some of these players make. 

 

Last year Tyreek Hill (of all people) gave a good example. When he was traded to Miami the Jets were right there as well for him. KC presented him with the choice and he took Miami in big part because NJ state taxes would have cost him $3.2M more for his share of games played there. And that's not even counting any lodging, large purchases (vehicles) that they may make being taxed at a higher rate.

 

As fans it's really easy to say "well this dude made $100M in the past if he's squabbling about $3M he only cares about money". But it's still a substantial amount when your window to make as much as possible is limited. I think most guys would say the dream is to be handsomely paid by a team that has a shot to win a championship. Best of both worlds. However if given the option between money and glory I think a lot of guys take the money...just like most of us would. 

[Irv]

6 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

RIP Commander Tom Jolls

Just saw that.  Clip, Irv, Rick, and now Commander Tom.  RIP Commander!

[SCBills]

24 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

Yea. Very strange assumption that because he’s going to visit the Titans and try and maximize his pay that he doesn’t care about winning. 

 

Meh..  I wanted Hopkins, but taking a visit to the Titans (either due to entertaining their offer OR using their offer to drive up his price elsewhere) tells me he's not exactly serious about winning and/or teams around the league view him as a potential "fall off the cliff" type of player.  

 

We'll see what he gets, and where he signs, but if I'm Beane and I can do Floyd for minimal cap gymnastics or Hopkins at say 15M per for multiple years... I'm taking Floyd (In the hypothetical contract comparison I just made up in my head)

[NewEra]

29 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

Yea. Very strange assumption that because he’s going to visit the Titans and try and maximize his pay that he doesn’t care about winning. 

We’ ll see where he ends up.  I bet it’s not KC, Buffalo or Cinci, Philly or SF.  Which means he doesn’t really care about winning imo.  
 

I could see Baltimore, not because he thinks he can win there….but because Decosta is the best in the business and usually finds a way to get the guys he wants and will find a way to pay him his minimum price tag.  
 

He talked all the stuff that he wants-  an elite QB.  A stable organization . A great defense.  I think the only place he can get that and get paid is Baltimore (if you consider a Lamar elite).   I think Baltimore and cleveland are the favorites due to the fact that they are on the outside of the elite teams, trying to become elite. 

[GoBills808]

2 hours ago, NewEra said:

He doesn’t care about winningZ. Only $

That's all NFL athletes care about. Including everyone on our roster too