Hopkins Good to Go, No Love For Bryce

The Washington Football Team is taking a significant gamble on Sunday at Detroit while being properly cautious in another area

ASHBURN, Va. - Dustin Hopkins appears good to go for Sunday against the Detroit Lions after a week of being limited in practice and not really kicking for distance until Saturday morning before the Washington Football Team left for Detroit. 

Instead of promoting kicker Kaare Vedvik from the practice squad to either replace or serve as an emergency fill-in for Hopkins, they'll go with their long-time kicker who has struggled this year, even when healthy. 

A couple of things to note: 

John Keim of ESPN pointed out that Hopkins kicked a couple of "50 yarders in walk-thru earlier today (Saturday)." Keim also added that Hopkins had no "ill effects with his groin." 

That sounds awesome, but coach Ron Rivera, every chance he gets, points out that an injured player really has to wait until the next day to see how they are feeling after returning to practice or performing. 

If that's the case (Ron has said it about 468 times), why wouldn't Washington, to be safe, promote Vedvik from the practice squad as part of the expanded COVID game-day roster?

One theory is that you can only do it twice before you have to sign that player to the regular 53 or expose him to waivers to get him back on the practice squad. 

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Certainly understandable but if there was ever a game that you could justify burning one of your two options, it would be Sunday in Detroit. Right? 

WFT could always deactivate Vedvik for the game if Hopkins checks in fine Sunday morning and then doesn't have a setback before 11:30 AM, when inactives are due. 

In essence, this is a very calculated risk. Washington fans should be holding their collective breath on Sunday every time Hopkins does anything. 

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Washington did promote linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk from their practice squad, presumably to fill the special teams role of linebacker Jared Norris, who was ruled out. 

As was indicated on Friday, Rivera and the WFT did not activate running back Bryce Love off the injured reserve list. Love returned to practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but missed Friday. The team has a 21-day window in which to move him to the 53-man roster.