This wasn't a great year to be a free agent wide receiver—or a team needing one. There weren't any true No. 1 wideouts. No "go-to" guys. At least none that didn't come with significant question marks.

The best of the lot may well have been Odell Beckham Jr., who wound up signing a one-year, $15 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens that included another $3 million in incentives. It was a nice payday for the 30-year-old, who missed the entire 2022 season while recovering from an ACL tear suffered in Super Bowl LVI.

The problem is that the deal appears to have gummed up the works for another 30-year-old potential No. 1 receiver. One with six 1,000-yard seasons and five Pro Bowl nods. After being released by the Arizona Cardinals, DeAndre Hopkins reportedly is seeking the same sort of scratch that Beckham got in Baltimore.

And to date at least, it doesn't appear anyone is willing to pay it.

When Hopkins was originally released by a Cardinals team unwilling to pay his $19.5 million salary in 2023, it set off a firestorm of speculation about his next landing spot. The list of teams that were mentioned as potential landing spots was longer than the teams left off.

The same Ravens that signed Beckham were brought up as a landing spot for Hopkins, too. The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, who both had been mentioned as potential trade partners with the Cardinals for Hopkins, re-entered the conversation as suitors.

Surely, it wouldn't take long for him to find a new home. After all, not that long ago, Hopkins was arguably the most dangerous receiver in the game. But then, as Tim Graham reported for The Athletic, it became clear what Hopkins was looking for financially on his new contract—and that Buffalo probably wasn't going to be his next team.

"(A source) called Buffalo "a long shot" to land Hopkins," he said. "The Arizona Cardinals released him last week, snuffing a contract with a base salary of $19.45 million this season. Two of the executives said Hopkins wants a deal similar to what the Baltimore Ravens gave Odell Beckham Jr., who signed a one-year deal worth $15 million guaranteed with another $3 million in incentives."

Albert Breer of the MMQB wrote that Hopkins' demands may also have pushed the Chiefs out of the running for his services—at least at this price point. However, Breer also mentioned that Hopkins' recent hiring of agent Kelton Crenshaw could offer at least a glimmer of hope.

"I'd be pretty stunned if that sort of deal is out there for Hopkins," Breer wrote. "And that's where hiring an agent can help him. Part of Crenshaw's job will be giving Hopkins the hard truth about his market, and that where it sits now is about more than just who he's been as a player—his age, injury/practice history and the time of year it is are all big factors, too. Had Hopkins accepted those truths earlier, my guess is he would probably be on the Chiefs or Bills roster now. At this point, I'd say both those teams would sign him only at a discount. The Chiefs gave money that would've gone to Hopkins to left tackle Donovan Smith. The Bills traded up for Dalton Kincaid, lessening their need for a chain-moving receiver and giving them another mouth to feed in an offense that has to get the ball plenty to Stefon Diggs."

On some level, it's not hard to see why teams like the Chiefs and Bills would be leery of handing Hopkins a big bag of cash. For all that Hopkins has accomplished in his career, not much of it has come recently.

Last year, Hopkins caught 64 passes for 717 yards and three scores. But he also missed eight games—including six while serving a PED suspension. The season before that, Hopkins missed seven games and caught a career-low 42 passes. Per Breer, there's quite a bit of disagreement about just what Hopkins has left in the tank.

"I asked one veteran team executive what's still there, and he answered, via text, "Not much. He can't run anymore." Another answer was pretty different—"He's still a good player. Good route runner, big, physical target that can play a ball in the air. He's still a threat." And a third played both sides of it.

"Still great hands, he is not going to separate, not much of a deep threat, but very strong, and makes contested catches as well as anyone in the NFL," the AFC exec said. "Does not love to practice—I can't imagine that'll get any better. And when things don't go well, you're always gonna be leery, All right, what kind of drama are we gonna get from this guy? When things are great, he's great. When things go south, his true colors show a little bit.

"But he always shows up on game day. He's gonna have to go to a team that knows what they're getting. You cannot expect a perfect-attendance type of worker."

Now, this doesn't mean that come September, Hopkins won't be running routes for an NFL team. There are other teams that have been mentioned as possible suitors. Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson did some public recruiting of his own for a reunion with his for teammate at Clemson and in Houston.

"I'll just say this, D-Hop, DeAndre Hopkins would love to be in a place where the opportunity is there for us to win," Watson said on the I Am Athlete podcast via ESPN. "We check all those boxes and I think for us to know and make sure we check all those boxes on the national stage, we've got to go out there and prove it and I think D-Hop would love to be a part of that."

Also, if the market remains soft for Hopkins' services, at some point his asking price is going to come down. And once that happens, many of the teams that balked at $15 million could come running—in 2020 Hopkins caught 115 passes for over 1,400 yards.

Hopkins is going to play in 2023. He may well make a big impact for a contending team. He might even have a better season that Beckham.

He's just probably not going to make $15 million this season doing it.