The New England Patriots may have given a contract extension to DeVante Parker, but that's not stopping them from pursuing this player.
The New England Patriots have been spending this past week making some in-house moves, with the biggest being the retention of wide receiver DeVante Parker.
Earlier in the week, the Patriots and Parker agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension worth up to $33 million, with $14 million in guarantees and pre-game bonuses. With that, the NFL world believed that this would put the Patriots out of the running for free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who visited the team this offseason.
As it turns out, that's not the case.
According to NFL Network national insider Ian Rapoport, even though the Patriots signed Parker, they remain optimistic that they can sign Hopkins.
Patriots will reportedly still pursue DeAndre Hopkins despite DeVante Parker's new contract
Hopkins was released by the Arizona Cardinals back in May after the team was unable to find a trade partner. With that, Hopkins has the choice to sign with whichever team he so chooses. Thus far, he has had visits with two teams, the Tennessee Titans and the Patriots. But, he left both visits without a contract.
New England does make sense as a landing spot for Hopkins, considering offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien was his former head coach with the Houston Texans. While there was his exit from Houston back in 2020, there is reportedly "no animosity at all" between the two.
Last year, New England's offense was woeful, averaging just 314.6 yards (26th in NFL) and 21.4 points (17th) per game. Head coach Bill Belichick had Matt Patricia as offensive play-caller and Joe Judge as quarterbacks coach last season. He then brought in O'Brien to be his offensive coordinator once again to get the most out of the offense, specifically quarterback Mac Jones.
If Hopkins were to join New England, he would easily sit atop the wide receiver depth chart alongside Parker and JuJu Smith-Schuster, whom the team signed to a three-year, $25.5 million contract after playing for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022.
Even though the team did give Parker a new deal, that's not stopping their pursuit of Hopkins. With training camp for the Patriots beginning for both rookies and veterans on July 25, it will be interesting who Hopkins signs with before the start of the 2023 regular season.