Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins Becomes Second-Youngest Player to Reach 600 Receptions

Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins entered Sunday’s game with 596 career receptions in his seven-year career. With four first-quarter catches, he reached 600. This was a historic moment for the former first-round pick as he became the second-youngest player to reach 600 career receptions (27 years, 5 months, 12 days).

The only player that was able to achieve this feat faster is Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The future Hall of Famer was the fastest to 600 career receptions, as well as 1,200, but Hopkins has been keeping pace throughout his Texans’ tenure.

Hopkins reached this mark early in Sunday’s game, catching a pass from quarterback Deshaun Watson and gaining 11 yards.

“That’s dope; that’s cool,” Hopkins said when asked about potentially reaching the receptions mark. “Definitely going to keep that football, only if we win. But no, winning is really the most important thing to me. But to be up there with people like Larry Fitzgerald, that’s not bad. That’s not bad at all. That’s pretty cool. The only thing better than [600] is [600] more, so hopefully, I can be the first to do that.”

Throughout his NFL career, Hopkins has been able to tie the Texans franchise record for receptions (115) with former teammate Andre Johnson. He has also set the top-three marks for touchdowns in a single season with 13, 11, and 11. Finally, he has three of the top-five yardage totals for a single season, topping 1,500 yards three separate times.

Hopkins has also achieved this feat with a rotating cast of quarterbacks. In seven seasons, he has caught passes from Deshaun Watson, Matt Schaub, Case Keenum, Ryan Mallett, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brock Osweiler, Tom Savage and TJ Yates.

Entering Sunday’s game between the Ravens and the Texans, the focus was understandably on the two young quarterbacks. Both Watson and Lamar Jackson are viewed as MVP candidates after leading their respective teams to division leads, and they were expected to put up big plays at every possible moment.

However, the early portions of Sunday’s game did not play out as expected. The Texans lost a fumble on the first drive of the game and then later failed on a fourth-down conversion after a questionable pass-interference penalty. The Ravens, on the other hand, failed on fourth-down after attempting a fake field goal. Kicker Justin Tucker also missed his first attempt of the season after bouncing the football off of the uprights.

The action on the field didn’t light up the scoreboard as expected, but Hopkins continued to produce when given the chance.

(Photo Credit: Wesley Hitt/Getty)