I think Garrett was right about the first part and wrong about the second.
Even if someone is a complete shit NFL player and his replacement would be better, cheering his injury is kind of gross.
On the other hand I’m not that disturbed by someone cheering injury to a rapist who has not faced any consequences.
Here’s the thing. We know from Watson’s reception in Cleveland that most fans didn’t care about the second thing. Therefore, if they’re cheering his injury, it’s mostly for the first reason. That’s not great, which makes Garrett mostly correct.
Fair enough. They didnt give up a ton. But their draft picks are pretty important with their contract situation going forward. So if this doesn’t pan out it also isnt nothing.
I hope more folks are looking at Mahomes’ numbers the last few years and slowly coming to the realization that the best QB doesn’t always have the best stats.
Chiefs need a competent receiver way more than they need a gamebreaker. They win games with long drives that eat clock, and having a shut down defense.
Hopkins should be solid until his appendix bursts in his first game here and he’s out for the season.
I’m not saying that he hasn’t declined and to expect peak DHop. I’m saying that he’s probably way better than people realize due to playing with clown college quarterbacks in a dollar store offense. Next Gen Stats says his average presnap cushion is 5.1 yards, which ranks 10th tightest this year among 93 WRs tracked, and despite that he’s 34th in average separation.
This is arbitrary but the way I’d operationalize that data is something like (separation / cushion) * (intended air yards). That mostly neutralizes the problem of scrubs starting with huge cushions and taking bubble screens, and DHop ranks among the best in average separation with respect to presnap cushion and intended aDOT no matter how I slice it. That’s the good news.
Where he drops off from truly elite company is YAC, both actual and expected. He’s 3rd worst in YAC and 7th worst in eYAC. To me that’s not really alarming for two reasons: (1) his role / assignment isn’t YAC WR and (2) eYAC will be dictated by scheme and QB accuracy to some degree. Chiefs already have the #1 eYAC player anyway so it’s not like that don’t pose that threat.
The thing I’d be most skeptical about is health and workload. He’s way down the list in snap count. Fewer snaps than AJ Brown who missed three games. If I sort by WR age > 31, it’s a list of players who are very frequently injured, Dhop not excluded. So I’d say it’s basically just a dice roll on whether he can stay out there. If he can, then that’s one guy they’ll have who can actually get open running routes, and one is greater than zero.
I mean their offense is bad and their QB has been playing like garbo, but they are still the best team by a good amount and have a great shot at another ring. It’s like the Patriots - some years they’d do it with monster offense, and some years Brady would manage an average-but-efficient offense. This is that, and the Chiefs are now in their carried-by-defense phase.
