According to Michael Baca of nfl.com on Monday, the National Football League has suspended Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins of Central, South Carolina six games for violating the National Football League performance-enhancing drug policy. He has decided not to appeal the suspension.
Hopkins played in 10 games for the Cardinals in 2021. He had 42 catches for 572 yards and eight touchdowns. Hopkins missed seven games due to a torn medial collateral ligament and a hamstring injury.
Hopkins’s best game of the season was the Cardinals’s first game of the year. He had six catches for 83 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-13 Cardinals win over the Tennessee Titans on September 12.
Hopkins was in his second season with the Cardinals. He was traded on March 20, 2020 in a deal that involved the Houston Texans. The Cardinals received Hopkins, and a fourth round draft pick in the 2020 NFL Draft (Cardinals selected defensive tackle Reshard Lawrence) from the Texans for running back David Johnson, a second round draft pick in the 2020 NFL Draft (Texans selected nose tackle Ross Blacklock) and a fourth round draft pick in the 2021 NFL Draft (pick ended up going to the Cincinnati Bengals).
With the loss of Hopkins, the Cardinals receivers are Marquise Brown, A.J. Green, and Rondale Moore. Brown was traded from the Baltimore Ravens to the Arizona Cardinals on the first day of the 2022 NFL Draft this past Thursday. Not having Hopkins as a wideout threat for quarterback Kyler Murray significantly weakens Arizona’s offensive attack heading into the 2022 NFL regular season.
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