Free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is in New England for his visit with the Patriots.
The question now is: Can they close the deal?
The Patriots are the second team Hopkins has met with since the Arizona Cardinals released him last month. Hopkins met with the Tennessee Titans over the weekend.
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What's the latest update on the Patriots and Hopkins? ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported Thursday that the Patriots still have a high level of interest in Hopkins, but also that the 30-year-old wideout is in no rush to make a decision on where to sign and could drag the process into training camp in late July or early August.
“I just got official word, DeAndre Hopkins is in New England. He’s meeting with the Patriots,” Fowler said on ESPN's morning show "Get Up!"
“He will meet with the coaches, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots' interest remains high. They made that clear with Hopkins’ representatives from the very beginning when he became a free agent. So we’ll see if they can close on this thing. I’m also told that Hopkins is not in a major rush. He’s looking at more training camp, even early August as more of a harder deadline for him to sign somewhere. So it’d have to be a very sweet offer for New England to make that happen today.”
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How long will the Patriots wait for Hopkins to make a decision?
It would probably be ideal to get him in the facility at least by the start of training camp so he can learn the offense and build chemistry with starting quarterback Mac Jones as soon as possible. The incentive for Hopkins to wait is that injuries early in training camps around the league could open up more opportunities and increase the number of teams interested in signing him.
That said, the Patriots should try everything possible to sign him as soon as they can. Hopkins would instantly become the team's best wide receiver and give Jones a top-tier weapon to target all over the field. The 2013 first-round pick isn't a top-three or top-five wideout anymore, but he's still a player who opposing defenses must game-plan for each week, and it's been a while since the Patriots had that kind of wide receiver in their offense.