The Cleveland Browns have made a move to hopefully solve their kicking problems according to Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk.com.
2022 fourth-round pick Cade York has had a rough preseason and has now lost his job. The Browns have acquired veteran placekicker Dustin Hopkins from the Chargers in exchange for a 2025 seventh-round pick. The team plans to waive York and immediately install Hopkins as the kicker for Week 1 of the regular season.
The 32-year-old Hopkins was Washington's kicker from 2015 to 2021 before moving west to join the Chargers. He suffered a hamstring injury last October and was replaced by Cameron Dicker. The rest is history-Dicker was on his way to a Carrie Underwood concert with his girlfriend when he got the call and seemingly came out of obscurity to singlehandedly solve the Chargers longstanding kicking problems.
Now healthy, Hopkins competed this summer to try to regain his job with LA but lost out to Dicker. That doesn't mean he performed poorly-he was 2-of-2 on field goals and 3-of-3 on extra points during the preseason-but it's hard to overcome a viral legend.
Before the injury, Hopkins was 9-of-10 on field goals, 12-of-12 on extra points, and sent 90 percent of his kickoffs for touchbacks for the Chargers.
York connected on a 58-yard field goal to win Cleveland’s season-opener against Carolina last year. But he finished the season just 24-of-32 on his field goals and missed a pair of extra points. He was still expected to be the Browns kicker this season but went only 4-of-8 on field goals during the preseason and missed an extra point against the Chiefs this past Saturday. York has a strong leg and reportedly looked good in practices. After regrouping, he will likely re-surface with another NFL team experiencing their own kicking problems.