Cardinals
Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins became the latest player to forego an agent and represent himself in contract negotiations, which is becoming a trend around the NFL. Hopkins did pretty well for himself, securing more than $27 million a year in new-money average on the two years he tacked onto the three remaining on his deal. He also secured rare no-tag and no-trade clauses. Hopkins said his motivation was his hope of working in a front office when he’s done with his playing career.
“It’s ownership and me believing in myself and my abilities to study the terminology of contracts and me knowing where I want to be after football,” Hopkins said via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. “I know one day I want to be a part of an organization and help build it, so I feel like this was a good time to learn and study everything that hopefully, I’ll one day be doing.
“I think also just showing other players that you can get things done yourself if you believe in yourself and have the right team around you. Agents are great. There’s never no knock on the agent or nothing against the agent that I had previously. There was no bad ties with them. It was just something that I wanted to do myself.”
Hopkins noted he’s also excited to have several years together with QB Kyler Murray to build a relationship on and off the field.
“I’ve never had more than [three] years with any one quarterback in my eight years of playing football,” Hopkins said via Darren Urban of the team’s website. “Being able to build a relationship with the quarterback, the sky is the limit. Being able to be with a quarterback that I know is the future of this organization for five years and having offseasons and building it, man, it’s exciting.”
49ers
- Per the Athletic’s Matt Barrows, 49ers LT Trent Williams said he was able to add 10 pounds of muscle this offseason and is up to 335 pounds: “I had so much time to train and lift, I kind of put on some muscle to prepare myself for the rigors of the season.”
- 49ers WRs Deebo Samuel and first-round rookie Brandon Aiyuk were unlikely to practice Wednesday. 49ers CB Jason Verrett was also out and C Ben Garland was limited. (Cam Inman)
Rams
- According to Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times, the Rams have turned their attention to getting a deal done with WR Cooper Kupp now that the extension for CB Jalen Ramsey is done.
- Rams HC Sean McVay confirms “it is the hope” they can lock up Kupp this week, per the Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue.
- NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo says it was important for Ramsey that he hit $20 million per year. In order to make that work on their salary cap, the Rams deferred a few payments that would ordinarily have hit Ramsey’s bank account sooner.
- McVay was happy they were able to get the deal done and it didn’t linger into the start of the season: “I’m happy for Jalen and I’m happy for our football team. I think for him to be able to get that taken care of, you don’t have any sort of distractions in the background, and so that’s definitely a positive for us.” (Eric Williams)
- McVay said Rams third-round OLB Terrell Lewis was placed on the non-football injury list because a surgery done on his knee a week and a half ago found no infection but did find atrophy in the knee. (Williams)
- Lewis can come back after three weeks on the list. (Rodrigue)
Seahawks
- CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora notes the Seahawks have had some extension talks ongoing with CB Shaquill Griffin ahead of Week 1.
- Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said CB Quinton Dunbar was full speed at practice Wednesday. Despite all the team he missed this offseason, Carroll says Dunbar could play Week 1: “He’s a really bright kid and picking up the system has been nothing for him. It’s been real easy. … Because of the savvy player that he is we’d be comfortable if he was on the field playing for us.” (Curtis Crabtree)
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