Cleveland Browns Kicker Reveals How Week Off Helped Him Get Right

Dustin Hopkins explained why he's thankful the Cleveland Browns have shown patience with him amidst his tumultuous 2024 season

Aug 4, 2024; Cleveland Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins (7) during practice at the Browns training facility in Berea, Ohio. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Football is a fickle mistress. Cleveland Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins has experienced that first hand during the 2024 season.

A year ago, Hopkins was a Pro Bowl alternate, having posted career marks for his field goal kicking. It's been a much different story for the 34-year-old just one year later. After missing two more field goals against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 14, the Browns decided to give Hopkins a week off to get himself right, turning to Riley Patterson for a week.

It was an abnormal tactic in what's been an tumultuous season for Hopkins, but one he appreciated.

"Before I even knew if I was playing or not, I was determined to turn into a positive," he said. "If I played, great, another opportunity to try to do my best. And if not, I was going to use the week to try to mentally prepare for this week. And I do feel like it was a good, I don't know, a nice little transition just to, I dunno, reset. So it feels like almost like a mini bye of sorts."

Hopkins has missed a league leading nine field goals this season. It's the most kicks he's missed in any season during his career as well. After missing a coupe kicks in a 35-14 loss to New Orleans in Week 11, Hopkins said he thought he had figured out what was wrong during halftime, but never had a chance to attempt another kick in that game.

After the two misses in Pittsburgh, Hopkins made it clear that it's not a mental thing, pointing to his kick swing just not working this year. It's been like that all season though for the 10-year veteran. Feeling great mentally about his process and still not getting the results. The week off helped him tweak some things and now he believes he's ready to return to action this weekend against the Bengals.

"I knew what was going wrong," said Hopkins. "But it was a matter of like, OK, how do you fix that now with a swing that is fluid and that you don't have to think about too drastically?" You don't want to change too much in season either. So yeah, I feel like I got a handle on it."

Kicking is such a pass, fail job, which is why in most cases when a kicker is going through it the way Hopkins is this year, they're not shown nearly as much patience. That's not lost on Hopkins, who is grateful the Browns, and head coach Kevin Stefanski, have shown him plenty of grace.

Pretty uneventful day in Berea ended with a bang as Myles Garrett sent a message to the #Browns, expecting a detailed plan for what the future looks like and emphasizing he doesn't want to be part of a rebuild. https://t.co/Ac1RzJegZr

— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) December 20, 2024

"No, I didn't put up a fight," Hopkins said of being inactive last week. "I feel like they're justified in making whatever decision they made because I didn't do what I needed to do on the front end. So, that's one. And then two, one thing Kevin told me was like, 'Hey, just trust me.' And I said, OK. Kevin's been so awesome with me, so I do trust him. So when he said that, I was like, I do, I trust you. I'm going to do everything I can to be ready when the time comes and we'll move forward."

Now it's on Hopkins to make Stefanski and the organization look right for standing by him. No one could have predicted things going this sideways for him this season. If the results are there Sunday though, and over the course of the final three games, not only will he make the organization look smart, he can also build some confidence going into 2025.

"It's not how I would've drawn it up, but at the same time, like I said, I want to make the most of it," Hopkins said. "I told some of the guys, I want to thank God for the closed doors just as much as I thank him for the open doors. And so I was trying to operate in that mentality."