Jim Wyatt's latest mailbag give Tennessee Titans fans yet another reason to buy into DeAndre Hopkins as a player set to prove everyone wrong this season.
Despite every Tennessee Titans fan begging for the team to make a splash at wide receiver this offseason, there was a surprisingly vocal minority of the fan base that wasn't in love with the DeAndre Hopkins signing. Whether it was concerns about his age, how much he would cost, or how committed he actually was to being great, there was always something that those fans weren't happy with.
Some of that can be ignored pretty easily, like how from a production standpoint, Hopkins hasn't had any sort of decline on a per-game basis despite playing with 2nd and 3rd string quarterbacks last season.
If you were concerned about the financials, Ran Carthon and Chad Brinker did an excellent job structuring his contract to give Hopkins a big payday without putting the team in a tough spot in the future.
The only concerns that couldn't be eased with a Google search were about how invested Hopkins would actually be in Tennessee. The knock on Hopkins was that he didn't like to practice and that he was going to be someone that missed a lot of time on the practice field unless it was absolutely necessary for him to be out there.
It turns out, that isn't the case at all, and you don't just have to take his word for it.
I was told he doesn’t practice… https://t.co/PhvKxr2pZr
— Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) July 28, 2023
Actions are speaking volumes for Hopkins and the Tennessee Titans
When the Tennessee Titans had their press conference to officially announce and introduce DeAndre Hopkins to the fans and the media, Mike Vrabel was quick to tell everyone that there was going to be a stretch of practices that Hopkins was going to miss early in camp and that those absences were excused.
What you might not know is that those "absences" have already taken place and Hopkins made sure he missed as little time as possible. Jim Wyatt actually detailed this in his latest mailbag.
Hopkins left practice early on the first day of training camp, but it wasn't due to injury or conditioning issues. Instead of skipping the practice entirely (which he had been cleared to do by Vrabel), Hopkins practiced as long as he could before leaving to make sure he could catch a flight.
That was on June 26th and you might notice that the clip above was from the next open practice on Friday, June 28th.
While Hopkins was cleared to miss multiple practices, instead he was putting in work on the day he was scheduled to fly out and he was back in town and on the field dominating in practice within 48 hours.
That sounds like the actions of someone who is all-in and his consistency has been remarkable from the minute the Titans signed him. Time will tell how good this move was, but anyone who still thinks this wasn't the right call based on everything we know so far, is set on being pessimistic and they are ignoring all of the positive signs sitting right there in front of them.