After spending some time with the Patriots during training camp, DeAndre Hopkins has found a more permanent job in coaching.
Per Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Georgia Tech is expected to hire Hopkins as a member of the program’s offensive staff.
After departing New England’s training camp, Hopkins has spent time this week visiting with the team.
George Godsey, Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator, was previously Hopkins’ OC with the Texans from 2015-2016. Godsey was also on last year’s Ravens staff as tight ends coach when Hopkins was with Baltimore.
If this is indeed the end for Hopkins as an NFL player, he’ll finish with 1,006 receptions for 13,295 yards with 85 touchdowns in 195 games over 13 seasons. He had 22 catches for 330 yards with two TDs with the Ravens last year.
The Ravens got a pair of defensive players back from the physically unable to perform list on Friday.
They announced that linebacker Adisa Isaac and cornerback Bilhal Kone have both been cleared to start practicing with the team at training camp.
Isaac will be hoping for better health in his third season. The 2024 third-round pick only played in four games as a rookie due to a hamstring injury and he missed all of last season after dislocating his elbow.
Kone was a sixth-round pick last April, but didn’t play in the regular season because he tore his ACL and MCL in the Ravens’ first preseason game last summer.
Ravens running back Derrick Henry is 32. That’s 2 years beyond where most running backs are run off.
Henry, though, is defying the odds.
In the two seasons since he turned 30 and joined the Ravens, Henry has rushed for 3,516 yards, averaged 5.6 yards per carry and scored 32 touchdowns.
Henry is entering his 11th season with no thoughts of his career ending any time soon.
“I don’t try to enter another season thinking about retiring and have that on my mind,” Henry said after the Ravens’ training camp practice Thursday, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com. “That’s not even my mindset. My mindset is: How can I get better, be the best I can be so we can be the best team we can be? But no, I haven’t thought about retirement at all.”
The five-time Pro Bowler, who has put together a Hall of Fame resume, still has plenty left to accomplish. He has never won a Super Bowl ring, which he says is “the No. 1 goal, always,” and he has a chance to move up on the NFL’s all-time rushing list.
His 13,018 rushing yards rank 10th, and with another 1,500-yard season, he can pass Eric Dickerson (13,259), Jerome Bettis (13,662), LaDainian Tomlinson (13,684) and Curtis Martin (14,101) into sixth place.
Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, was 35 years old in his final season of 2004. Henry isn’t thinking about how long he’s going to play, but has no thoughts of retirement.
“I love the game, and once I feel like that love is gone, then I’ll hang it up,” Henry said. “But I’m just focused on getting better.”
When it comes to his contract, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has a consistent habit of sharing as few details as possible. He has continued to choose to keep the situation as private as he can.
Jackson was asked during his first press conference of training camp whether he would provide an update on any negotiations with the team.
“I’m gonna keep it the same way I’ve been keeping it. You know, not here,” Jackson said. “You know, it’s private between me and the G.M.”
Because he doesn’t have an agent, Jackson has in the past cut off talks once football season began. He was asked whether he’d be working on a new deal, now that training camp has opened.
“Yeah, you know, focus on football, like it’s always been,” Jackson said.
It’s been clear for more than a year that Jackson wants, and deserves, a new deal. When he signed his current contract in 2023, he became the highest-paid quarterback in the league, at $52.5 million. Since then, that APY has slid farther and farther down the list of top quarterback compensation packages.
In January, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti made it clear that the team wanted to get a new deal done, ideally before the beginning of the league year in March. That didn’t happen. And it still hasn’t happened — even though it would be very easy to get it done.
With the new Patrick Mahomes deal moving the bar to $63 million per year, a Jackson deal at say, $63.5 million per year, would consist of three new years at $190.5 million plus the remaining $104 million on the final two years of his current contract. That’s a grand total of $294.5 million over five years, an average from signing of $58.9 million.
The guarantees would also need to be negotiated, with perhaps the first two years fully guaranteed at signing and the third year fully guaranteed as of the start of the second year. That essentially makes the first three years fully guaranteed.
Still, both sides have to get there. Before they can get there, they have to want to get there. Since neither side will say anything about the negotiations, it’s impossible to know how and why a fairly simple negotiation has once again been bogged down — like it was throughout 2021 and 2022, until a new contract was finally signed after the rookie deal had expired in 2023.
This time around, the Ravens won’t be able to use the franchise tag, if/when the current deal expires. That gives Jackson more leverage than he had under his rookie deal. If a new contract isn’t done before the end of the 2027 season, he’ll be in line to become an unrestricted free agent in 2028.
With training camps open, list season has mercifully ended.
One of the most significant developments in this year’s collection of slow-time one-through-whatever efforts to differentiate players was the ridiculous placement of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in the NFL Network players-only list of the top 100 players in the league.
Jackson finished at No. 69, down 67 spots from 2025.
Jackson was asked about the placement on the NFLN list during his first press conference of training camp on Wednesday.
“It is what it is,” Jackson said. “You know, I play football. I don’t care about rankings.”
That’s the right attitude. The rankings don’t mean anything. They’re something for the media to write and talk about and for the fans to react to.
Still, it’s an opportunity to fashion a legitimate chip on the shoulder for the season to come. But Jackson doesn’t seem to be motivated by actual or perceived slights.
He goes about his business. And, in relation to the rest of the league, there’s no way 68 other players go about their business better than him.
