DeAndre Hopkins recruitment tour begins in earnest with WR leaving Kyler Murray in the dust

DeAndre Hopkins has been released from the Arizona Cardinals. Despite most expecting the wide receiver to move via trade, the one-time Texans superstar receiver is now on the open market. Meaning, the wide receiver can sign with whomever he chooses with no red tape to fight through.

As such, hordes of NFL fans swarmed to the news, listing pretty much every team in the league as a hopeful or likely landing spot. Here's a look at the seemingly infinite options laid at the feet of the receiver:

The move also leaves Kyler Murray without his best wide receiver and looking at how sluggishly the team played without him in 2022, some fans are already bracing for a lost season.

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DeAndre Hopkins set to make 2023 season a vengeful one

No. 10 at New Orleans Saints v Arizona Cardinals

The wide receiver was a rocket for Deshaun Watson in Houston and for half a decade prior, he lit up the statistics sheet for Matt Schaub, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer, and Brock Osweiler. After getting traded to the Arizona Cardinals for what many called the equivalent of a pencil and a piece of string, the wide receiver exploded to the third-most yards of his career.

However, since then, he's faced a downtick. Prior to joining the Cardinals, the wide receiver missed the 1000-yard mark just twice in seven years. Since then, he's missed it in both of the last two years. To be fair, the wide receiver missed about half of 2022 due to a suspension.

In nine games, he earned 717 yards and three touchdowns, leaving many to assume that he would easily have topped 1000 yards had he played the entire season. Well, without a suspension in Hopkins' future, the wide receiver should have an open road to getting there in 2023.

Of course, the other elephant in the room is his age. He turns 31 in about 10 days, putting him on the wrong side of 30 years old. However, it isn't completely unheard of for star players to hit 1000 yards past the age of 30. That said, it will be up to Hopkins to prove the Cardinals did a disservice to him by cutting him outright or at least whatever made him want out in the first place.

The question isn't if the wide receiver will get work but rather how fast he'll settle on a job. Could he even have a new home by June 1st?