DeAndre Hopkins moved quickly on Monday after Jason La Canfora reported that the veteran wide receiver wanted out of Baltimore during the 2025 season. Hopkins answered the claim himself in a now-deleted post, writing, “Falso. Felt like we were contenders, especially if we got into the playoffs.”That response matters because it shut down the idea that Hopkins saw the Ravens as anything less than a real contender. It also did not erase the bigger issue. Hopkins clearly was not thrilled with how little Baltimore got out of him in 2025, and that part of the story has been sitting in plain sight for months. His 22 catches, 330 yards, and two touchdowns across 17 games tell the story of a player who was on the field, but rarely featured.
DeAndre Hopkins denied wanting out, but the usage frustration was never hard to spot
Hopkins’ deleted response was aimed at one part of the reporting. It was not a full defense of how his season played out. That distinction matters.The veteran wideout already showed frustration during the season. In a previously reported deleted post highlighted in follow-up coverage, Hopkins pointed to his lack of red-zone usage and wrote that he was still productive when targeted. That lines up with the numbers. He averaged 15.0 yards per catch in 2025, but Baltimore still finished the year with Hopkins in a limited role.So no, Hopkins did not publicly say he wanted to leave because Baltimore was not good enough. He said the opposite. But he also did not sound like a player who thought the Ravens used him correctly. Both things can be true.
John Harbaugh is gone, and DeAndre Hopkins now looks like a clean free-agent gamble
Another detail in the dump needed cleaning up. John Harbaugh is no longer in Baltimore. The Giants hired him in January and announced his staff in February. So any conversation about Hopkins and Harbaugh now belongs to the past, not the Ravens’ current future.What comes next for Hopkins is simpler than the drama around the deleted post. He is 33, coming off a small-stat season, and no longer profiles as a volume WR1. But he still has value as a situational target, especially for a contender that needs reliable hands and does not need 120 targets from him. ESPN and NFL stats both show the same thing: the production dipped hard, but the efficiency on a per-catch basis did not completely disappear.That is why the deleted post landed the way it did. Hopkins may have denied wanting out, but he also reminded everyone that the Ravens never came close to getting full value from a five-time Pro Bowler.
