First Davante Adams was traded from the Las Vegas Raiders to the New York Jets, then Amari Cooper was traded from the Cleveland Browns to the Buffalo Bills - now DeAndre Hopkins is on the move from the Tennessee Titans to the Kansas City Chiefs. Per Adam Schefter, the deal is all but done. 

The Chiefs find a replacement for their banged up wide receivers corps while the 1-6 Titans get something back for their injured star. The fantasy football implications could be huge for this one, especially considering Hopkins is available in over 50% of Yahoo leagues as of the writing of this article. 

Let’s take a look at the fantasy football fallout of the DeAndre Hopkins trade for both teams. First, here’s the framework of the trade, per Adam Schefter.

 

 

 

Kansas City Chiefs Get

Tennessee Titans Get

  • Conditional 4th round pick

Kansas City Chiefs Fantasy Implications

Fantasy Football Winners

The obvious winner here is Hopkins with the quarterback and team upgrade. Hopkins has never relied on speed to beat defenders but rather precision route running, body positioning, and stellar hands. 

Our upside comps for Rashee Rice coming out of college were actually guys like DeAndre Hopkins and Keenan Allen given their similarities in terms of athletic build and contested catch ability. This playstyle generally ages gracefully in the NFL though injuries have hampered Hopkins in recent years.

Again, easy enough here. A new weapon for Mahomes to work with that fills a void left by Rashee Rice, Hollywood Brown, and a recently nicked up JuJu Smith-Schuster. They have Travis Kelce at tight end. They have Xavier Worthy to stretch the field. Now Hopkins will help in the intermediate range. 

Targets are important for running backs, no question. And maybe there is a slight hit in that department. But DeAndre Hopkins does not run the routes that overlap with what the RB does. And the reality is that carries and touchdowns often are what truly drive the boat when it comes to RB production. This addition will likely raise the tide for all boats in this offense.

 

 

 

Fantasy Football Losers

Kelce was forced into additional action with Rashee Rice out. And Kelce should still be just fine for fantasy. But another player with great hands running intermediate routes should cap the upside to some degree for both players. There’s really no reason for anyone to get 15-20 targets here now with more options. 

  • Chiefs Wide Receivers

Xavier Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Justin Watson, and Mecole Hardman were all in line for more work. But the reality is that very few teams are able to sustain more than two fantasy relevant pass-catchers. The addition of DeAndre Hopkins puts everyone else on the backburner since Kelce is there.

 

 

 

Tennessee Titans Fantasy Implications

Fantasy Football Winners

Perhaps this is more neutral than anything for Calvin Ridley as he was already the top target on the team. But Tyler Boyd now becomes the clear WR2 here and he should operate in two WR sets rather than just being the slot guy. Nick Wesbrook-Ihkine will move into the WR3 chair but he’s at least an injury or another trade away from relevance.

  • Chigoziem Okonkwo

Chig might not be a full-time player, but he ran double the routes of any other tight end last week and he’s also run double the routes from a WR spot of any tight end on the team this season. They only have four WRs on the depth chart now so they will need to add someone, but this could lead to more two TE sets. And more chances.

Fantasy Football Losers

Losing a wide receiver like DeAndre Hopkins is obviously bad news for the starting quarterback, who is already currently hurt. Giving up on the season certainly is not good for his dynasty value either as it makes it more likely that they could end up with a top pick. 

As we always say, running is the luxury of the winning team. The Titans are going to have an even harder time moving the ball now which means fewer red zone tricks and opportunities for the running backs.