When the Houston Texans' season ended, wide receiver Andre Johnson expressed his desire for the team to add another playmaker to the offense. As the primary receiving threat, Johnson wanted the Texans to build a solid receiving core in order to compete in the growing AFC. Houston listened to their star, and drafted former Clemson receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, in the first round.
Johnson is doing his duty as a veteran of the team and mentoring the rookie in hopes that he turns out to be a solid receiving threat. He wants Hopkins to play a major role in the Texans' offense and will help as much as he can to make that happen.
"I try to help as much as I can with him and all the other young guys. I guess he gets it a little bit more because he sits next to me in meetings. It's just some players that he sometimes gets confused with. Most of the time, he knows what he's doing. But you're going to have questions with the system being new for him. He'll continue to get better and better," Johnson said.
Johnson's help with Hopkins seems to be working as the receiver is impressing early in Houston. Head coach Gary Kubiak declared Hopkins as a "special" player, believing he is the receiver they hoped he would be. Kubiak was impressed with Hopkins ball handling skills. He says the receiver is built for success with long arms and big hands. He has the ability to make some eye-catching catches, the exact reason Houston drafted him in the first round.
Kubiak expects Hopkins to be a starter immediately. He will likely sit second on the depth chart behind Johnson.
"I'm expecting it right off the get-go. He's going in there, he's gonna get the reps. It's gonna be a very competitive situation, but we took him there because we expect him to play very, very early and touch the ball. This guy's on his way to being a pro already, and we've got to help him get there real fast," Kubiak said.
Houston only got 63 catches last season out of wide receivers other than Johnson. That will not be good enough in 2013. The Texans are hopeful that the Johnson-Hopkins pairing will turn out to be similar to the Atlanta Falcons situation with Roddy White and Julio Jones. If Hopkins can become close to that, the Texans will be on their way to one of the receiving tandems in the AFC.
