Brycen Avery Hopkins (born March 27, 1997) is an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
tight end
The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...
for the
Los Angeles Rams of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL). He played
college football at
Purdue.
Early life and high school
Hopkins grew up in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
and attended
The Ensworth 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
Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel.
History
Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...
'' and three-star prospect by ''
247Sports.com'', Hopkins committed to play college football at Purdue. He was offered a scholarship by the school after impressing then-recruiting coordinator
Gerad Parker
Gerad Michael Parker (born January 4, 1981) is an American football coach and former wide receiver. He is the tight ends coach at Notre Dame. He was previously the offensive coordinator at West Virginia University. Parker played college footba ...
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
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
.
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 passes 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 sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
, ''
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 circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'', and ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''.
Professional career
On April 25, 2020, Hopkins was selected by the
Los Angeles Rams in the fourth round (136th overall) in the
2020 NFL Draft. He made his NFL debut on October 26, 2020 in a 24-10 win over the
Chicago Bears. 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 in
Super Bowl LVI after starter
Tyler Higbee
Tyler Higbee (born January 1, 1993) is an American football tight end for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Western Kentucky and was drafted by the Rams in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL ...
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 a former American football player. He played left tackle for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), all of them with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans organization.
Early years
Hopkins ...
.
References
External links
Purdue Boilermakers bioLos Angeles Rams 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