{"id":176236,"date":"2025-07-02T18:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/176236\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T18:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:30:12","slug":"lamar-jackson-gives-initial-impression-of-deandre-hopkins-including-how-all-pro-wr-is-different-for-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/176236\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamar Jackson gives initial impression of DeAndre Hopkins, including how All-Pro WR is &#8216;different&#8217; for Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Article-featuredImageImg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Kansas City Chiefs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2182949386-1.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"433\" width=\"770\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/teams\/BAL\/baltimore-ravens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/2025-nfl-free-agency-ravens-wr-deandre-hopkins-agree-to-terms-on-one-year-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">made a splash in free agency<\/a>\u00a0and strengthened their wide receiver unit with the addition of <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/players\/1737078\/deandre-hopkins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DeAndre Hopkins<\/a>. The five-time All-Pro standout is a new weapon for <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/players\/2181169\/lamar-jackson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lamar Jackson<\/a>, who said after his first few practice sessions with Hopkins that the Ravens&#8217; acquisition brings a different element to an already fearsome group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins joined the squad in March on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million. Even at age 33 and on the heels of a down year, he could be an affordable difference-maker when he slots into the lineup as another proven option alongside <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/players\/3127049\/zay-flowers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zay Flowers<\/a> and <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/players\/2960940\/rashod-bateman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rashod Bateman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is different,&#8221; Jackson said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/45582207\/deandre-hopkins-baltimore-ravens-lamar-jackson-contested-catches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">per ESPN<\/a>. &#8220;He caught the ball so smoothly and got up [easily]. I don&#8217;t even think he put his other hand on the ground to get up; he just caught the ball and just started [running]. That&#8217;s some super vet type of stuff. It&#8217;s just dope to have him [here], and I am looking forward to throwing a lot of touchdowns to him this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The five touchdowns Hopkins accumulated last season were his second-fewest since 2016. Still, he proved capable of being an impact player late in his career as he caught 56 passes in a season he split with the <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/teams\/TEN\/tennessee-titans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> and <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/teams\/KC\/kansas-city-chiefs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>. He was far more productive in the Chiefs&#8217; prolific offense than the Titans&#8217; mediocre unit and played his best football of the year in the second half of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>In the best years of his career, Hopkins was the go-to target in his Houston and Arizona offenses. He peaked at 115 catches (once with each team) and at 1,572 yards and 13 touchdowns. Those days as one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/cbssports.com\/nfl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL&#8217;s<\/a> top receivers are behind him, but Hopkins could still perform above replacement level with the Ravens as a tertiary option in the receiving corps.<\/p>\n<p>The fit in Baltimore is also mutually beneficial in that Hopkins is a needed addition to the offense and the Ravens give him an opportunity to compete for his first <a href=\"https:\/\/cbssports.com\/nfl\/superbowl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Bowl<\/a>. He fell just short of a championship last season when he helped the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl with three postseason catches for 29 yards and a touchdown. It was his first playoff trip since 2019 with the <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/teams\/HOU\/houston-texans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been in big games before,&#8221; said Ravens coach John Harbaugh. &#8220;He&#8217;s made plays in the big games. He knows how to make plays. There&#8217;s not going to be any situation that&#8217;s going to be too big for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The Baltimore Ravens made a splash in free agency\u00a0and strengthened their wide receiver unit with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,4695,7,895,6,13052,169,4648],"class_list":{"0":"post-176236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-deandre-hopkins","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lamar-jackson","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rashod-bateman","16":"tag-ravens","17":"tag-zay-flowers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114785067060409796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}