KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — DeAndre Hopkins was at a fishing event in Miami with Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones a couple of years ago, and the buddies talked about how the three-time All-Pro wide receiver could fit in the Kansas City offense.
It didn't work out at the time, and Hopkins wound up signing with Tennessee as a free agent.
It finally worked out this week.
The Chiefs announced their trade for Hopkins on Thursday, sending the Titans a conditional fifth-round draft pick for a veteran pass catcher they hope can help them overcome a devastating rash of injuries to their wide receiver corps.
“Obviously throughout my career I've been a big fan of what Andy (Reid) has done. Going against those guys in Houston, they gave us some tough battles,” said Hopkins, who will wear No. 8 in Kansas City as an homage to Lakers great Kobe Bryant.
“Chris Jones is one of my buddies off the field. Him and I talked about that potential if I were a free agent or ever got traded.”
The Chiefs made space for Hopkins by placing Skyy Moore on injured reserve Thursday with a “core muscle injury,” even though the wide receiver did not appear on the injury report the previous day for Sunday's matchup at Las Vegas.
Kansas City had become desperate for wide receiver help after Marquise Brown had shoulder surgery before the season, Rashee Rice underwent season-ending knee surgery and JuJu Smith-Schuster hurt his hamstring in last week's win over the 49ers.
The Chiefs believe Hopkins can absorb enough of the playbook to be active for the game against the Raiders.
“You start kind of from the bottom, the snap-count part of it," Reid said, “and you work your way up through. He's seen enough. He's been around it long enough, to where it's more the dialect than the language that he has to learn.”
The Titans will get a fifth-round pick in the 2025 draft for Hopkins, who has been managing a knee injury much of the season. It could become a fourth-rounder if he plays 60% of snaps with the Chiefs and they make the Super Bowl.
Tennessee also agreed to pay $2.5 million of his remaining salary, an important point for the salary cap-strapped Chiefs.
“Me and him conversed about this like, two years ago," Jones said Thursday. “We both agreed he would be super successful in the offense. Just at the time there was a lot of things going on and unfortunately we weren't able to acquire him at the time. But you know how life works. It's a full circle. And unfortunately with injuries we needed a wide receiver.”
Hopkins is the third high-profile wide receiver to be traded in just over a week.
Davante Adams was the first to move, going from the Raiders to the Jets for a conditional third-round draft pick next year. Hours later, the Bills acquired Amari Cooper and a sixth-round pick next year from the Browns for a third-round pick along with a seventh-rounder in 2026.
The 32-year-old Hopkins had only 15 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown in his second season in Tennessee. But he gives the Chiefs a proven star — 943 catches for 12,528 yards and 79 TDs in a career spent mostly in Arizona and Houston — along with an accomplished red-zone target for a team that has struggled to score touchdowns inside the opposing 20-yard line.
It's the third straight season the Chiefs have traded for a wide receiver, acquiring Kadarius Toney from the Giants two years ago and Mecole Hardman from the Jets last season. The Chiefs believe the lessons they learned from their on-boarding processes will help them to quickly assimilate Hopkins into the team.
“It's exciting for everybody,” Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “You get a guy that is super experienced. He's been in this league for a long time. He's had a lot of success. You look at both situations and I feel like it's a win-win type of deal.”
Indeed, Hopkins said the one thing missing from his resume is a Super Bowl, and he will have an opportunity to rectify that in Kansas City. The Chiefs, at 6-0 the last unbeaten team in the NFL, are going for a record third straight Lombardi Trophy.
“I haven't played meaningful football in a couple of years,” Hopkins said. “I think I've done all the accolades I could accomplish as far as personal, so playing meaningful football in January is what's left on the list.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Chiefs finalize trade with Titans for 3-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins
Chiefs finalize trade with Titans for 3-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins
Tennessee Titans' DeAndre Hopkins (10) makes a catch against Indianapolis Colts' Jaylon Jones (40) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey struck suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day on Thursday following an attack on the premises of a key defense company that killed at least five people, the state-run news agency reported.
The National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party — the PKK — or by Syrian Kurdish militia that are affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. The targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s strikes.
On Wednesday, Turkey's air force carried out airstrikes against similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after government officials blamed the deadly attack at the headquarters of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS, on the PKK.
Defense Minister Yasar Guler said Thursday that 47 alleged PKK targets were destroyed in Wednesday’s airstrikes — 29 in Iraq and 18 in Syria.
“Our noble nation should rest assured that we will continue with increasing determination our struggle to eliminate the evil forces that threaten the security and peace of our country and people until the last terrorist disappears from this geography,” Guler said.
The assailants — a man and a woman — arrived at the TUSAS premises on the outskirts of Ankara in a taxi they commandeered after killing its driver, reports said. Armed with assault rifles, they set off explosives and opened fire, killing four people at TUSAS, including a security guard and a mechanical engineer.
Security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack started at around 3:30 pm, the interior minister said. The two assailants were also killed and more than 20 people were injured in the attack.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya named the assailants as Mine Sevjin Alcicek and Ali Orek and identified them as PKK members.
There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.
In Syria, the main U.S.-backed force said Turkish strikes in the north of the country killed 12 civilians and wounded 25.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Turkish warplanes and drones struck bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and local police checkpoints.
Amir Samu, an administrator at the al Swediya oil refinery in Derik, northern Syria, said overnight strikes at the facility resulted in the deaths of seven workers and guards.
“They were all poor workers working in the refinery to make a living. It is a civil institution, not military or anything like that,” he said.
Samu stated that al Swediya was the only refinery “feeding” the area. “The damage will have effects on diesel, petrol and gas,” he said.
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its defense systems have been credited as key to Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.
The attack occurred a day after the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party that’s allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.
Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in 1999, is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul.
In a related development, his nephew Omer Ocalan announced on the social platform X that on Wednesday family members were allowed to visit him for the first time since March 2020.
Omer Ocalan, a lawmaker from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, also conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, saying he was being kept in isolation and offering to work to end the conflict “if the conditions are right.”
"I have the theoretical and practical power to (transform) this process from one grounded in conflict and violence to one that is grounded on law and politics,” Omer Ocalan quoted his uncle as saying.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
On Thursday, large crowds gathered in the courtyard of a mosque in Ankara to take part in the funeral prayers for three of the victims, including Zahide Guclu — an engineer who was part of a TUSAS helicopter project. She was killed by the assailants after she had gone to the entrance of the complex to collect flowers sent by her husband.
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Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Hogir Abdo in Derik, Syria contributed.
Relatives of Hasan Huseyin Canbaz, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS in Ankara on Wednesday, mourn during a funeral at Karsiyaka morgue in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Turkish soldiers stand next to the coffins of Zahide Guglu Ekici, Hasan Huseyin Canbaz and Cengiz Coskun during their funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, a day after they were killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives of Hasan Huseyin Canbaz, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS in Ankara on Wednesday, mourn during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives of Hasan Huseyin Canbaz, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday, mourn during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives and Turkish soldiers carry the coffin of Zahide Guglu Ekici, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS in Ankara on Wednesday, during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives and authorities pray next to the coffin of Cengiz Coskun, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday, during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives of Cengiz Coskun, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday, mourn during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives and authorities pray next to coffin of Cengiz Coskun, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday, during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Relatives of Cengiz Coskun, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS on Wednesday, mourn during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque, in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Turkish soldiers carry the coffin of Zahide Guglu Ekici, who was killed during an attack by PKK members at the Turkish aerospace and defense company TUSAS in Ankara on Wednesday, during a funeral at Karsiyaka mosque in Ankara, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside the Turkish state-run aerospace and defense company Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
Ambulances wait in line outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)
People gather outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)
People gather outside of the Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
In this image take from security camera video shows two people with guns and backpacks during an attack on the premises of the Turkish state-run aerospace and defence company (TUSAS ), on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2024. (Validated UGC via AP)
Emergency and security teams are deployed outside of Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. at the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/Dia Photo via AP)
