Trust in DeAndre Hopkins to Trust in Himself

DeAndre Hopkins is confident. You could sense it as the Houston Texans wide receiver strolled around the Carnival Breeze in Galveston, which was hosting a brunch in honor of Mother's Day and his team's new corporate partnership with the cruise line, either in that order or the other way around. Hopkins was set to compete against his teammate Brian Cushing in a water slide relay race for charity, the "Mom's Dash to the Splash." Cushing tried to engage his opponent for the day in some pre-race banter, but Hopkins didn't answer that bravado. He was just ready to compete.

Hopkins's own mother, Sabrina Greenlee, was the victim of a devastating attack when he was ten years old: the girlfriend of a man she had been dating doused her with a toxic mixture of bleach and lye; doctors had to put her in a coma while she recovered. His father had died in a car crash when Hopkins was just five months old. Growing up in South Carolina, Hopkins' family sometimes needed assistance from the local food bank, which is why he's such an active spokesman with the Houston Food Bank today. He wound up winning $5,000 for the charity on Mother's Day, and seemed serious about it.

Hopkins is coming off a breakout season, having caught 111 balls for 1,521 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2015. Only Julio Jones and Antonio Brown had more targets, and they had the added bonus of having those passes thrown by Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, respectively, instead of the hydra-headed mediocrity monster that was Houston's quarterback situation. With free agent signing Brock Osweiler settling the QB question in Houston, at least for now, Hopkins may be in a better position to be efficient rather than just prolific. He clearly believes as much. Last week, Hopkins told reporters that the Texans would again be the top team in their division. "I feel like we've earned that title to be the team to beat in the AFC South," he said. "When I got here, it was the Colts. We finally (got) over that hump."

Hopkins was drafted 27th overall by Houston in 2013. His rookie season got off to a promising start in Week 2 with a pair of touchdown catches, including a game-winner in overtime to lead the Texans past the Tennessee Titans and to 2-0 record. Then Houston lost 14 games in a row. That rough season was compounded by Hopkins' struggles to get into the offense.

In Houston, under head coach Gary Kubiak, targets weren't given. They were earned. "Arian Foster, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels—all those guys were there and established on the offense," he said. "I basically had to be perfect to earn the trust of Matt Schaub and the team. Second season, I still wasn't the first or second option in the offense. But I knew it'd take time to gain everyone's trust." He said it as if there was never any doubt that the Texans would figure out what they had in him.

Hopkins' efficiency numbers began to pick up after Johnson signed with the Indianapolis Colts; he finished 23rd in DVOA in 2014. But as effectively the only desirable option in a turned-over receiving corps last season, Hopkins' efficiency numbers slipped in 2015 even as his targets soared. This year, he'll look to bring the two into balance. And he believes he has a quarterback, in Osweiler, who can make that a reality. "That guy came in and it was like he'd been here for years," Hopkins said of the former Broncos quarterback. While adding a strong-armed partner should help a lot, Hopkins also went out of his way to praise Osweiler's leadership skills.

Personnel departments highly value those traits in a quarterback—there's a reason Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook fell to the fourth round in this year's draft, and it's got little to do with his on-field play. But those attributes don't mean much for Osweiler's actual future on the field.

Instead, you can look at Osweiler's arm, which is superior to that of any quarterback Hopkins has ever played with. The Texans haven't had a quarterback that could push the ball downfield in…well, ever. Osweiler can do that, and has the arm strength to stretch the field. Even if he isn't a superstar in the waiting, Osweiler can put points on the board if he can get the ball into Hopkins' wide catch radius. Being able to do so on deeper balls can only help the offense as a whole.

That is, of course, only true if Hopkins manages to stay healthy, but it should be noted that the wide receiver has yet to miss a game in his NFL career. Some of that is luck, but Hopkins also makes sure he takes care of his body. He says it's the most important thing he learned from Johnson, his former teammate and the lone light on the Texans for most of the 2000s. "To play as long as he had, the injuries he had were more just freak accidents on the field," Hopkins said. "He took care of his body. He was preaching to me to take care of my body off the field."

Now Hopkins is in a position to impart his own lessons to younger receivers. The Texans spent two of their first three picks in the draft on wide receivers, snagging Notre Dame's Will Fuller in the first round and Ohio State's Braxton Miller in the third. Fuller and Miller provide another thing the Texans didn't have last year: speed. The hope is that they'll open up more space for Hopkins.

"They've got to gain everybody's trust," Hopkins said, speaking from experience. "It's not college. There's not a non-conference game. Every game in the NFL counts."