When it rains, it pours for the Cleveland Browns.
No one, not even special teams players, has been safe from the injury bug this season, with kicker Dustin Hopkins set to miss Thursday night’s matchup with the New York Jets with a hamstring injury.
With that in mind, the team announced that they had elevated kicker Riley Patterson and punter Matt Haack from the practice squad.
We've elevated P Matt Haack and K Riley Patterson from the practice squad
📰 » https://t.co/HtYahgBFlo pic.twitter.com/eUR99z3F7G
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) December 28, 2023
Patterson is a two-year NFL veteran out of the University of Memphis.
He entered the league in 2021 as an undrafted free agent by the Minnesota Vikings, but he never made an appearance for them.
He’s played in 37 games with the Detroit Lions in two separate stints in 2021 and 2023 and Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022, knocking down 57 of 66 field goal attempts and 87 of 90 PATs.
This season alone, he converted 15 of 17 field goal attempts in 13 games with the Lions.
Haack, on the other hand, is a seven-year veteran out of Arizona State.
He entered the league in 2017 as an undrafted free agent signed by the Miami Dolphins.
Thus far, he’s made 98 appearances with the Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Indianapolis Colts, and he hasn’t played at all this season.
He has 429 career punts for 19,087 yards (44.5 yards per punt in average), with 160 of them landing inside the 20-yard line.
Even so, this team has seemingly reached a point in which it doesn’t even matter who’s playing; you just know they’re going to leave it all on the field and give their best effort, and most likely leave with a nail-biting win.
NEXT: Browns QB Joe Flacco Has As Many Passing TDs This Season As His Former Team