Last year, there really weren’t any Texans WRs that stood out from the bunch, or distinguished themselves in camp as better than the incumbent Kevin Walter, who knew the playbook.
But just in rookie minicamp, DeAndre Hopkins CLEARLY stood out as someone who looks like he can play grown man football.
Setting the stage: First session of rookie minicamp. In the practice bubble due to bad weather. Poorly thrown ball goes Hopkins way and he snatches it in stride with one hand and heads up field. Huge assembled media almost in unison says, “Whoa, did you see that?”
And then keeps doing it. Highpointing balls that defenders have better position on and snatching out of air. Finding an obvious second gear in going after an overthrown ball. Catching tough balls in traffic. Diving for low thrown balls and getting them. Very natural catching the ball.
So, yes, the rest of the wide receivers at camp looked competent in what they were doing. But so many of the whoa catches came from Hopkins.
In her piece, Texans beat writer Stephanie Stradley says that she is usually pessimistic about rookie receivers, so her praise for Hopkins' early play is meaningful. It certainly feels like Hopkins is going to start opposite Andre Johnson in Week 1.
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