#DeAndre Hopkins uses Patrick Mahomes deal to shade Texans again

With NFL players across the league reacting to Patrick Mahomes’ market-resetting contract extension, former Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins had a slightly different reaction.

The All-Pro wideout, who is clearly still salty after a lopsided trade sent him to the Cardinals this offseason, lauded the reigning Super Bowl MVP for signing the blockbuster 10-year, $503 million deal, while also taking a jab at his former squad.

“24 reasons why Mahomes deserves that. 0 Doubts he will win more Super Bowls,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old receiver is referring to the 24-0 lead the Texans squandered in the AFC Divisional Round in January. After allowing 24 unanswered points in the first 20 minutes of play, the Chiefs came storming back to crush the Texans behind five Mahomes’ touchdowns.

Hopkins caught nine passes for 118 yards in the affair, and the game ended with a score of 51-31. The Chiefs advanced to the AFC Championship and Super Bowl 54, which they won 31-20 over the 49ers.

At the outset of the 2020 NFL free agency period in March, the Texans shockingly dealt Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Cardinals, in exchange for injury-riddled running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick.

The Clemson product had been with the team since entering the league as a 2013 first-round draft pick, and somehow managed to find success in spite of a rotating cast of inconsistent quarterbacks — which included the likes of Matt Schaub, Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, Brandon Weeden, Tom Savage and Brock Osweiler — before Houston drafted Deshaun Watson in 2017.

Hopkins has reeled in 632 passes for 8,602 yards and 54 touchdowns through 110 regular season games. He broke the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his career in 2019 and was named to his fourth Pro Bowl team.

The move was immediately ridiculed throughout the NFL, most of which was directed at head coach Bill O’Brien, who also serves as the team’s de facto general manager.

“There was no relationship,” Hopkins told Sports Illustrated about O’Brien after the trade. “Make sure you put that in there. There’s not a lot to speak about.”

He added that a trade was, “the outcome that [he] wanted” after “asking for a little raise.”