Why DeAndre Hopkins is not the typical fit for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes

Matt Nagy strolled through the Chiefs’ practice facility early Thursday morning, the coordinator of the only offense in the NFL without a passing touchdown this month in search of a new weapon.

The front office had been on that search for weeks and, at last, landed wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in a trade with the Tennessee Titans, parting with a day three draft pick.

The purpose of Nagy’s stroll was to meet Hopkins as early as possible. The Chiefs, after all, plan to play him Sunday in Las Vegas, which puts some urgency on this three-day window.

Hopkins made an impression before he even uttered a word.

With a handshake.

“I have pretty big hands, and he like swallowed my hands,” Nagy said. “He has massive hands.

“There’s a reason why he’s catching these footballs.”

It’s a lighthearted observation, but there’s some particular relevance to it. Hopkins is known for his large catch radius and low drop-rate, notable qualities for a Chiefs offense that possesses neither.

At the top, the Hopkins acquisition is a low-risk move for a team in need of some help after losing Rashee Rice and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown — and even one of their replacements, JuJu Smith-Schuster — to injuries.

Why not take a short-term flier and see what Hopkins can still provide at age 32?

But let’s make something clear: Hopkins is not a replacement for something the Chiefs have lost to injury. He is not the missing piece to the typical Andy Reid offensive puzzle. He replaces what they have rarely sought during Patrick Mahomes’ tenure. He comprises a different puzzle altogether.

The catch radius.

And, more specifically, a contested-catch wide receiver.

Hopkins is no longer an elite separator, even if he is adept at knowing how to operate in zones. But he can pull down some catches in traffic.

He has 93 contested receptions in his career, per PFF data, and in his prime caught 25 in one year. Spotting coverage near him is not always a reason to look for another option. He is sometimes still the best option.

But it’s one the Chiefs virtually never use.

Which makes this marriage — Hopkins and a Chiefs offense coached by Reid and quarterbacked by Mahomes — an unusual fit. And that’s meant to be taken literally — as in, Hopkins isn’t the Chiefs’ prototype at the position.

Here’s what I mean: In every year of his career, Mahomes has ranked among the bottom-three in the NFL in percentage of tight-window throws, per Next Gen Stats ... and he’s taken that to the extreme this year.

Only 7% of his throws have been labeled “aggressive,” or those made when the receiver has minimal or no separation — the lowest such number of his career, and half the league average for tight-window throws. He’d rather throw to the open guys than take a risk.

You could spin that two ways: that the Chiefs are unwilling to throw the very passes on which Hopkins has thrived in his career — and particularly its later stages; or that the Chiefs just haven’t had the type of receiver to justify taking those kinds of chances.

Yes.

And yes.

It’s both.

Which is what makes this acquisition so intriguing. Experimental, almost.

If the Chiefs are to gain the maximum value from their trade, Mahomes will need to adapt his willingness to make throws into tight windows, because it’s a spot where Hopkins can excel. He finished 13th in the NFL in tight-window receptions as a 31-year-old in 2023.

Mahomes’ willingness, logically, could increase with the change in personnel. Maybe. We’ll see. But Sammy Watkins had eight contested catches in 2019, and while that’s just one-third of Hopkins’ career best, no KC receiver has topped that number since.

The most memorable pass Mahomes has thrown this season came in Los Angeles, a 62.2-yard flight to Xavier Worthy for a touchdown. There was a notable backstory to that play — Mahomes’ adopting his “(bleep) it” attitude ahead of that particular throw.

With all the focus on that pass, there’s an element we sort of glossed over: It was a contested catch.

It’s also the only contested catch the Chiefs have been credited with all season.

They are, quite unsurprisingly, dead last in the NFL in contested catches, from a quarterback who offers his receivers fewer opportunities than anyone. In fact, every other team has at least one player with at least three. The Jets have been credited with 24 such catches.

Twenty-four to 1.

The Chiefs have a need for a receiver with Hopkins’ skill-set, but that’s been true for awhile. They hadn’t exactly seemed in a hurry to acquire it, instead returning to the likes of Mecole Hardman when they have a roster spot.

So, yes, they have a use for it. But will they use it?

“I think in my time, we’ve had receivers that can make some of those contested catches, and once you build that relationship and build that trust, you put them up there and let guys go out there and make plays,” Mahomes said when I asked him vaguely about this on Wednesday, hours before the trade became official.

“I think that’s what’s special about Coach Reid’s offense — it adapts to whoever’s in there.”

There’s more to the story, of course.

Hopkins, as Reid described, has a “very good understanding of how to work in space.”

And if you couple that with the extended catch radius, you’ve got a good fit on the opposite side of the formation as tight end Travis Kelce. He’s sure-handed, with a drop rate that’s half of what Mahomes has been working with over the past six seasons.

Those are attractive traits. Hopkins is a Hall of Fame-caliber receiver, and even if he isn’t what he was five years ago, the cost isn’t what it was five years ago, either. That’s attractive, too. As I said before, relatively minimal risk.

The bottom line is the Chiefs don’t have the luxury of finding the ideal system fit in the middle of October. Those luxuries came in March and April, and concluded with Marquise Brown solving their deep-passing-game woes — only for him to suffer an injury one snap into the preseason.

It’s now about acquiring talent for a room in need of it. Hopkins certainly still has some of that. It’s worth noting that Justin Watson is second among Chiefs wide receivers in snaps this season and has all of seven catches in six games. They can’t afford to be picky.

They can afford, however, to adapt. They’ll have to adapt in order to make this one work at its best. They have a pretty good track record of it this season — two wins ago, the Chiefs beat the Saints and had five players who’d recently been released by other teams combine for 294 yards. It was a game defined by making the most of what they had, even if it wasn’t exactly what they had intended to have.

Making the most of Hopkins will require growing comfortable with a different way of operating, which isn’t solely the thought of throwing into tighter windows. The Chiefs also like to throw the ball early and get their receivers in space, designing an objective to create the bulk of their yardage after the catch, rather than through air yards.

They lead the league in yards after catch per completion at 7.1. They have finished in the top-four of that statistic in all seven seasons of Mahomes’ career — and never worse than 5.9 yards, according to numbers tracked by Pro Football Reference.

Heck, Hardman this year has more yards after the catch (60) than total receiving yards (50). Sound confusing? It’s accurate, because he’s caught that many of his passes behind the line.

It’s what the Chiefs do.

It’s not what Hopkins does. His average yards after reception: 3.4.

He has 15 catches this season — and I’ll absolutely attribute that number to the remarkably terrible quarterback play in Tennessee. But he has zero yards after the catch all year, per PFF. Zero.

The adaptation has to come from him, too.

He has proven capable of fitting into different systems throughout his career, and that’s probably the most fitting phrase: different system.

This would qualify.