The current Arizona Cardinals wide receiver couldn’t help but poke fun at his former team from missing out on playoff contention.
DeAndre Hopkins had been a key reason for the Houston Texans‘ success in recent years. That made it more confusing as to why then-general manager and head coach Bill O’Brien opted to trade him to the Arizona Cardinals earlier this year for running back David Johnson and two mid-round selections in the 2020 NFL Draft. As many expected, the stud wide receiver got the last laugh.
On Sunday, the Texans ended up falling to the Mitchell Trubisky-led Chicago Bears by the score of 36-7 to drop to 4-9 on the season. As a result, Houston was officially eliminated from playoff contention. Once the official NFL on FOX Instagram account posted the news, Hopkins personally commented with a series of laughing emojis.
Hopkins gets the laugh over the Texans
As if Texans fans’ Sunday couldn’t get any worse, they saw this after scrolling through their Instagram feed.
Hopkins has long had the last laugh over the Texans. After an 0-4 start to the season, O’Brien was handed his walking papers and replaced with assistant head coach Romeo Crennel. As for Hopkins, he saw instant success with the Cardinals and had some clutch performances, specifically his Hail Mary touchdown reception against the Buffalo Bills in Week 10.
The Texans didn’t exactly have an advantage heading into their game in the Windy City. Wide receiver Brandin Cooks was ruled out for the contest and Randall Cobb is still on the injured reserve. That meant quarterback Deshaun Watson had to work with a supporting cast consisting of Keke Coutee, Chad Hansen and Steven Mitchell. To make matters worse, Watson lost to Trubisky, the guy who has been criticized throughout his career for being selected over the Texans quarterback and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 NFL Draft.
As for Hopkins, he had a huge day for the Cardinals. Hopkins caught 9-of-11 targets from quarterback Kyler Murray for 136 yards in Arizona’s 26-7 win over the New York Giants.
Hopkins can laugh now, but he better hope the Cardinals win out in the final three weeks of the season to clinch a playoff berth. There’s no room for error in the wide open NFC.