The Cleveland Browns finally moved on from their struggling kicker.
It’s the Andre Szmyt era in Cleveland, with Dustin Hopkins being shown the door after two up-and-down seasons in Northeast Ohio.
That wasn’t much of a surprise, especially after watching his struggles following him to the preseason:
“The thing with Dustin, to the yips point and wondering if it’s that, I really do think it’s a problem that he was coming in here in the preseason and missing these extra points,” noted Browns beat reporter Ashley Bastock. “He made his field goals, but it was two extra point misses for him in these preseason games. He missed a handful of extra points last year and to me that just screams, hey, it’s a mental thing at this point. Those are supposed to be the gimmes.”
Hopkins was once one of the most accurate kickers in the game.
The Browns struck gold when they traded for him, as he knocked down just over 91% of his field goal attempts in his first year with the organization.
Then, he struggled to get back on his feet in his second year after being given a big-money deal.
The Browns are entering this season after winning just three games in 2024.
They know they can’t afford to keep leaving points on the field, and with Hopkins missing even the easiest kicks, the writing was already on the wall.
Long gone are the days in which teams could rely on their kickers to make seemingly automatic kicks, and it’s become quite difficult to find any sort of consistency at the position.
Whatever the case may be, the Browns need to keep a short leash with Hopkins’ replacement as well.
Scoring opportunities may not come that often for this team.
As such, they will need to make the most of every single chance they have of putting up points on the scoreboard.
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