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Brycen Hopkins was picked in the fourth round (136th overall) by the Los Angeles Rams.
Hopkins was the ninth tight end selected, following Cole Kmet (Notre Dame), Devin Asiasi (UCLA), Josiah Deguara (Cincinnati), Dalton Keene (Virginia Tech), Adam Trautman (Dayton), Harrison Bryant (Florida Atlantic), Albert Okwuegbunam (Missouri) and Colby Parkinson (Stanford).
Hopkins will join a Rams team that includes former Western Kentucky tight end Tyler Higbee, who played for Jeff Brohm in Bowling Green. Former Purdue strength and conditioning coach Justin Lovett recently joined the Rams in a similar capacity.
The last Purdue tight end drafted was Dustin Keller, who went in the first round of the 2008 draft to the Jets. Hopkins is just the third Boilermaker tight end picked since 1998, as Charles Davis was tabbed in the fifth round in 2006 by the Steelers.
The 6-5, 245-pound Hopkins was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten pick in 2019 as a fifth-year senior and was named the league’s tight end of the year. He finished the season with 61 catches for 830 yards and seven TDs and was named the Big Ten Tight End of the Year. Those totals led all Big Ten tight ends. The Nashville native will leave with 130 career catches for 1,945 yards and 16 TDs.
Hopkins' father, Brad, was the 13th overall pick out of Illinois in the 1993 draft by the Oilers, playing all 13 of his NFL seasons with the franchise as an offensive tackle.
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