Still not officially retired, ex-Texans star DeAndre Hopkins makes coaching debut for Georgia Tech

DeAndre Hopkins has yet to officially retire from the NFL, but he looked pretty comfortable in his new coaching gig Thursday night.

A day after Georgia Tech hired the former Houston Texans star as an assistant receivers coach, Hopkins announced that even though he was getting into coaching, that didn’t mean he had decided to hang up the cleats as a player. In fact, when the Texans lost No. 2 receiver Jayden Higgins to a season-ending ACL tear last month, Hopkins was one of the names brought up as a possible replacement and the 34-year-old added some fuel to the fire by posting an old photo on social media of himself scoring a touchdown for the Texans.

Hopkins, who had 22 catches for 330 yards last year with the Baltimore Ravens, may still be holding out hope that a team will need a veteran receiver at some point this season, but for now he’s drawing raves for his coaching work in Atlanta.

During Georgia Tech’s 14-13 loss to Colorado on Thursday night, ESPN sideline reporter Paul Carcaterra talked about the high expectations that Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key has for his new assistant.

“He said that DeAndre’s a rising star in the coaching profession,” Carcaterra said during the ESPN broadcast. “He’s an unbelievable wide receivers coach, but he has all of the attributes to be a head coach. It’s his demeanor, it’s his relationship with the players. His overall IQ for the game, he said is off the charts.”

Hopkins got to Georgia Tech partly because of his days in Houston, where he was All-Pro four times and still ranks second behind Hall of Famer Andre Johnson in nearly every receiving category in Texans franchise history. George Godsey took over as Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator this season, and he spent three years with the Texans when Hopkins was there. Godsey started as the Texans’ quarterbacks coach in 2014, then was the offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016. Godsey was the Ravens’ tight ends coach last season when Hopkins also was in Baltimore.

Hopkins was an All-American receiver for Clemson in the ACC before the Texans drafted him 27th overall in 2013. After seven seasons in Houston, Hopkins was traded to the Arizona Cardinals by Bill O’Brien in a move that still is considered one of the worst trades in Texans franchise history. He played three seasons in Arizona before signing with the Titans and eventually getting traded to the Chiefs where he finally got to play in a Super Bowl, although it came in a losing effort.

“DeAndre is one of the greatest receivers of all-time, but his value to our program goes far beyond the that,” Key said after hiring Hopkins in July. “He has an exceptional knowledge of what we’re doing on offense due his long relationship with George Godsey and strong familiarity with the ACC, but most importantly, he’s a leader of men that I’m very excited for our players to be around, on and off the field.”

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This article originally published at Still not officially retired, ex-Texans star DeAndre Hopkins makes coaching debut for Georgia Tech.