The Cleveland Browns have had a revolving door at the kicker position for what feels like forever. Ever since Browns legend Phil Dawson left the team the position has been unsettled.
In the 10 years since Dawson played for the team there has been over 10 different kickers, averaging a new kicker every year. The Browns have tried to get a reliable kicker in every way imaginable. They have signed, drafted, and traded for kickers in their search.
Their kicking woes seemed to be solved last year with the trade for Dustin Hopkins. Hopkins had a career year and broke several records for both the Browns and the NFL. The Browns rewarded Hopkins with a lucrative three year contract extension, thinking that they had solved the kicking problem that has plagued the team for the last decade.
They couldn't have been more wrong. Hopkins has had a miserable year to date, making a lousy 64% of his field goal attempts, making him 37th out of the 40 players to attempt a field goal this year. He has also missed two of his extra point attempts, giving him the 38th best percentage. To be fair to Hopkins, these are his career lows and they appear to be an outlier.
While head coach Kevin Stefanski has said all of the right things about supporting his kicker through a rough patch, the team still might have a different kicker on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Browns signed Riley Patterson this week. Patterson was on the team last year when Hopkins was dealing with injury. So who kicks on Sunday?
#Browns special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said Dustin Hopkins and Riley Patterson will kick today and tomorrow in practice, and then they'll decide who will kick vs. #Chiefs on Sunday. Hopkins is still their kicker overall.
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) December 12, 2024
Patterson has also been made active ahead of Week 15, making it seem like Hopkins might be getting sat for one of the Browns' last games of the season. With the postseason out the window and with the team fully switching gears into evaluation mode, Hopkins might become a part of that process. With his misses in big moments over the last few weeks, it feels like the right time to have him sit.
Needless to say it will be interesting to see how the Browns handle this situation. Will they continue to ride with Hopkins? Can his issues be fixed and this is truly an outlier? Or is this who he is now? Hopefully for Hopkins and the Browns he is able to become more accurate and get back to his 2023 form.