8. DeAndre Hopkins– Let’s take it back to the days when Andre Johnson was still an active player. Remember how everyone said he needed that other receiver to take the pressure off of him? Remember those days? In 2013, the Houston Texans drafted that receiver and since then, he’s made a very nice name for himself and has put in the work to get to where he is now. I’m talking about DeAndre Hopkins and he checks in as my eighth best player on my ten best players list and my second-ranked receiver. He’s also the fourth member of the Texans ever to make the list (Watt, Andre Johnson and Arian Foster are the other three.) Although he’s caught passes from many different quarterbacks over the years, he’s still been a very productive receiver nonetheless and that’s the first thing that’s caught my eye about him. He’s a phenomenal athlete and this is one thing that people don’t really discuss. He has excellent body control, especially when he’s going over the top of defenders and it’s almost as if he’s making adjustments while in the air. He squares himself up to get the ball and he’s made some extremely acrobatic catches. Defensive backs will bump him, push him around and have the best coverage on him, but his ability to judge the ball and get to where he needs to be to make the catch is what’s helped him and his game develop. I’ll always remember a play he made in 2014 against the Giants. He ran a deep post down the middle of the field and made a spectacular one-handed catch. The bad thing about the play was it was overturned because of an illegal formation so it didn’t stand. I’ve seen him play against some of the better corners in the league and I’ve also seen him build a house for himself on Revis Island, a place where many receivers haven’t had success over the years. He’s a playmaker and you can double him, you can try to jam him off his route or even play off of him in a zone scheme, but he will make you pay either way. I can’t wait to see he and Deshaun Watson pick up where they left off in 2017.
