Kevin Stefanski hints that Browns found a Dustin Hopkins replacement

64 percent accuracy.

That's what Cleveland Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins is carrying into the team's Week 15 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs. Hopkins, who was recently given an extension to stay with Cleveland in the 2024 offseason, has certainly not lived up to the expectations set for him with that extension.

He's consistently missed field goals that could have landed the Browns within one score or even at a tie with teams over the last several weeks, with the Pittsburgh Steelers game in Week 14 being the latest example of his incompetence.

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Hopkins missed two field goals that would have had the Browns within one score of the Steelers in the fourth quarter with an actual chance to tie things up in the must win contest.

Despite those misses, it seems like Hopkins will be the team's kicker moving forward according to head coach Kevin Stefanski. But, Stefanski added an interesting catch to his comments to media ahead of the team's first Week 15 practice when speaking about Hopkins' performance this season and his status with the team for these remaining four games.

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This week, Cleveland actually added kicker Riley Patterson to their practice squad. Patterson, who played just one game this season for the New York Jets, hit all three of his extra point attempts in a win for the Jets. Adding him to the practice squad is adding some obviously needed insurance for the Browns if Hopkins continues to struggle with easy point opportunities.

Throw in Stefanski's comments to reporters ahead of practice and ahead of Week 15's game against the Chiefs, and it seems like Patterson might be fighting to start over Hopkins the rest of this season.

"Dustin is our kicker but we'll work through all of that this week," were Stefanski's words to reporters when asked about Patterson's elevation to the practice squad, according to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.

Hopkins is clearly on a short leash regardless of his contract. Cleveland, technically, can afford to lose games now. They're set for a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft in April, and are statistically eliminated from the NFL playoffs after losing to the Steelers. At this point, though, and best put by Shelby Harris during this week's episode of Hard Knocks, players are playing for their NFL careers.

That has to include Hopkins, who has suddenly gone from a career 85 percent average kicker to a sub-70 percent kicker.

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