Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel discussed adding All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Titans' roster, and how his long history with the veteran receiver helped get the deal done.
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00:00 -Now that you've added DeAndre to this roster,
00:03 how much and what do you hope that he can bring,
00:07 not just to this team, but to this offense?
00:09 -Well, obviously, it's a proven player.
00:12 It's a proven player that's had production year after year.
00:18 He's a veteran president that's seen a lot of different defenses.
00:22 He's got experience in our offense, some over the system.
00:25 It's gonna have changed a little bit,
00:27 but I would say that he's got some familiarity with it.
00:29 Some familiarity with me, with Timmy,
00:33 and, you know, some of our coaches.
00:35 So I'm gonna ask him to do the same thing
00:38 that we ask everybody else to do,
00:40 which is to come in, be attentive, work hard,
00:46 help the team in multiple ways,
00:49 and I'm confident he'll do that.
00:50 I would tell you this, that when we signed him,
00:54 he mentioned that he wanted to communicate
00:57 that he had prior engagement that he'll be taken care of
01:01 here in the next couple days.
01:02 So I would say that there may be a day or two
01:05 that he won't be here, not to alarm anybody,
01:07 but appreciate him letting us know that on the onset
01:12 and when we signed him.
01:13 So we do that with all of our players.
01:16 They communicate the things that come up.
01:19 -Coach, you mentioned the familiarity.
01:21 Having worked with him in Houston
01:22 and also Coach Kelly as well,
01:24 how much did it help that you knew not only
01:26 what he could do on the field,
01:28 but the type of player he was in the locker room,
01:30 the practice field, and his work ethic all together?
01:32 -Well, that always helps in free agency.
01:34 I think we've talked about this in the past,
01:36 is trying to have some working knowledge of the player,
01:42 whether that's a position coach, a general manager,
01:46 or someone in the personnel department, you know, myself.
01:49 I think that that's important,
01:51 that you bring players into this team,
01:53 that you bring people into this building.
01:55 So I think that's always going to be a positive.