Social media activity can be easily overblown, but did Jared Goff just signal he'd like the Lions to sign DeAndre Hopkins?
There's plenty out there suggesting the Detroit Lions are a good potential fit for DeAndre Hopkins, and now that he's available as a free agent the contract slate is clean. The practical reality is more of a stretch, and for whatever it's worth head coach Dan Campbell punted on answering a question about Hopkins at OTAs this past week.
Lions coach Dan Campbell on if he's intrigued by DeAndre Hopkins: "I'm not going to comment on that one, but I like our receiver room. I think we got a good mix of different types of guys."
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) June 1, 2023
Campbell would never say anything to openly and fully declare the Lions are interested in Hopkins. There was an unattributed and unconfirmed elsewhere (as far as I could tell on the latter) "report" saying they were doing homework on him. Which means absolutely nothing, as most teams could make a case to have some interest in Hopkins and thus do some sort of "homework".
Hopkins has a tie to the quarterback in Cleveland, and Deshaun Watson has said he'd love to have his former top target in Houston with him on the Browns. The recruiting pitches to Hopkins are out there, though Lions quarterback Jared Goff doesn't seem like one to be very outward with something like that.
Is Jared Goff angling for the Lions to sign DeAndre Hopkins?
Much, and too much, can be made out of an athlete's social media activity. But in today's world, it's a platform used to send messages to their team, recruit players to their team, etc. Wide receiver Jameson Williams stepped into some lukewarm water when he liked a post suggesting the Lions should have pursued Lamar Jackson. Campbell dismissed it as "harmless", which it largely is.
Confirmed by looking at his page, and further fortified by SI.com, Goff followed Hopkins on Instagram sometime recently (cue the eye ball emojis).
Goff's Instagram page is not brand new. If he wanted to follow Hopkins, if only to show appreciation for his talent, he could've done it a long time ago. And if Goff was going to do any sort of social media recruiting or signaling, he would probably subtly do it along the line of pressing a "like" or "follow" button.
In a broad sense, social media activity is not to be taken too seriously. But there's also an intentional element to it--nothing much is posted, liked, etc. without meaning to do it, and save for preservation by screenshots it can be undone with little consequence in many circumstances.
So is Goff sending a signal he'd like the Lions to try to add Hopkins? Or is his IG "follow" much ado about nothing?