Brycen Avery Hopkins (born March 27, 1997) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

, and was selected by the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

in the fourth round of the

2020 NFL draft The 2020 NFL draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The ...

Early life

Hopkins grew up in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

and attended

The Ensworth School The Ensworth School is a private school located on two separate campuses in Nashville, Tennessee. The original campus, with grades kindergarten (previously referred to as "pre-first") through eighth, opened in 1958 with 152 students. The school ...

. He initially focused on basketball and did not play organized football until his junior year. He was named Division II-AA All-State as a senior. Rated a two-star prospect by '' Rivals.com'' and three-star prospect by '' 247Sports.com'', Hopkins committed to play

at Purdue. He was offered a scholarship by the school after impressing then-recruiting coordinator Gerad Parker with his physicality in a pickup basketball game.

College career

Hopkins

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman season at Purdue. He had 10 receptions for 183 and four touchdowns while serving as the second string tight end as a redshirt freshman and caught three passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns against Iowa. Hopkins remained the second-string tight end for Purdue as a redshirt sophomore, but finished the season with 25 receptions for 349 yards (both the highest among Purdue's tight ends) and three touchdowns. As a redshirt junior, Hopkins finished third on the team with 34 receptions and 583 receiving yards with two touchdowns and was named honorable mention All-Big Ten Conference. Hopkins entered his redshirt senior season on the watchlist for the Mackey Award. He was named the John Mackey Award Tight End of the Week after catching six passes for 84 yards and a touchdown in the season opener against Vanderbilt on August 30, 2019, and again after posting 10 receptions for 140 yards against Maryland on October 12. Hopkins finished the season with 61 receptions for 830 yards and seven touchdowns and was named first-team All-Big Ten, the Kwalick–Clark Tight End of the Year and a semifinalist for the Mackey Award. He finished his collegiate career with 130 catches for 1,945 and 16 touchdowns. Hopkins was named a second-team All-American by

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

''.

Professional career

On April 25, 2020, Hopkins was selected by the

in the fourth round (136th overall) in the

. He made his NFL debut on October 26, 2020, in a 24–10 win over the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

. Hopkins played in five games, mostly on special teams, as a rookie and did not catch a pass. Hopkins played in five games during the 2021 regular season, catching one pass for nine yards. He also played in three of the Rams' four playoff games and saw significant playing time in the team's 23–20 win over the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

Super Bowl LVI Super Bowl LVI was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2021 NFL season, 2021 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2021 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles ...

after starter Tyler Higbee was ruled out for the game and backup Kendall Blanton suffered a shoulder injury in the first half. Hopkins caught four passes for 47 yards in the game. On September 21, 2022, Hopkins was suspended for three games for violating the NFL's policy of substance abuse.

Personal life

Hopkins is the son of former Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans offensive tackle

Brad Hopkins Bradley D. Hopkins (born September 5, 1970) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a left tackle for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), all of them with the Tennessee Titans, Houston Oilers ...

References

External links

Purdue Boilermakers bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Brycen 1997 births Living people American football tight ends Los Angeles Rams players Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee Purdue Boilermakers football players The Ensworth School alumni