Cardinals release DeAndre Hopkins

DeAndre Hopkins is officially on the open market.

The Cardinals announced on Friday that they have released Hopkins, with the club unable to find a trade partner.

Darren Urban of the team’s website noted that Arizona will incur a dead cap hit of $21 million in 2023, though there is a chance the club could designate Hopkins a post-June 1 cut to spread the cap hit between 2023 and 2024.

But with quarterback Kyler Murray recovering from an ACL tear suffered late in the 2022 season, it might behoove the Cardinals to just rip off the proverbial bandage in the coming year.

The Cardinals acquired Hopkins in March 2020 from the Texans. He caught 115 passes for 1,407 yards with six touchdowns in his first year with the club. He was then limited to 10 games in 2021 due to injury, catching 42 passes for 572 yards. A suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy kept Hopkins out for the first six games of 2022. He finished the season with 64 catches for 717 yards with three TDs.

Hopkins was the 27th overall pick of the 2013 draft for Houston.