Some of the Cleveland Browns' 2024 struggles, like poor quarterback play, felt routine. It's something that all but the most optimistic fans have been resigned to for a while now. But some pains felt fresh every time. One of the biggest ones was the terrible kicking performance from Dustin Hopkins. Watching him miss an NFL-high 9 kicks was teeth-gnashingly frustrating each time.
That's why the OTA update from special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone is such a painful one. It sounds like he has no intention of doing anything to push Hopkins toward improvement.
Browns Not Changing Anything With Dustin Hopkins in 2025
Ventrone's belief that Hopkins has a "clean slate" in 2025, and that he seems to have faith in where Hopkins is at mentally this year, reinforces what we've seen earlier this offseason: the Browns will not be looking to replace him before the season.
With no real kicking additions in free agency or the draft, Hopkins and practice-squadder Andre Szmyt remain the Browns' only options at the position, and that won't be changing soon.
Hopkins earned plenty of love with Cleveland in his 2023 debut season, knocking down a career-best 91.7% of his field goal attempts. He was stellar, including hitting 8-of-8 from 50-plus. And then things completely fell apart in 2024, going only 66.7% on field goals and missing three extra points.
Does he figure to bounce back from such a bad year? Sure, to some extent — it would be hard to kick that poorly twice in a row. But expecting a return to 2023 form is also unrealistic. Just consider Hopkins' career-average numbers:
- Field goal %: 84.0%
- 50-plus %: 58.7%
- XP %: 93.6%
He's an average kicker overall who struggles mightily with long field goals. And at 34 years old, it's not like we're expecting him to still be improving and developing toward reaching his prime.
Available Free Agent Kickers
Considering Andre Szmyt's track record in the NFL, it's hard to see him being the one to replace Hopkins any time soon, even if the Browns seem to think he has some potential. Szmyt went undrafted in 2023, played in the UFL in 2024 and was unsigned by any NFL team until the Browns added him to their practice squad in late December. So competition for Hopkins would have to come from somewhere else. And the options available in free agency are not great:
- Nick Folk
- Matt Prater
- Eddy Pineiro
- Michael Badgley
- Zane Gonzalez
- Austin Seibert
- Cade York
August Could Change Everything
The one wild card here is that we're still only in OTAs. If Hopkins is still struggling in training camp, and especially the preseason once he's getting some real live-game action, Ventrone and the Browns could be quick to change their tune. His contract is kind of ugly and the Browns would actually lose some cap space if they cut him, but by August, that doesn't matter nearly as much as it did earlier in the offseason.
And the options to replace a kicker tend to grow quickly in the preseason. Plenty of teams have two viable kickers on the roster right now, making the wise move of having them compete for the starting job. Every year we see a handful of kickers hit the open market in August, and there tends to be plenty of shuffling as kicker-needy teams scoop them up.
If Hopkins hasn't fully turned the corner in August, the Browns can't afford to continue to believe this "clean slate" approach.