Who Should I Start? Dustin Hopkins or Cairo Santos

Tuesday, August 26, 3:18 PM

The Cleveland Brown released kicker Dustin Hopkin on Tuesday, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. It appears that Andre Szmyt will open the 2025 regular season as the team's placekicker, although the Browns could still bring in more competition before Week 1. Hopkins will be let go after spending the last two seasons kicking for Cleveland, where he went 51-for-63 on his field-goal attempts (81%) and 41-for-46 on his extra-point tries in 31 total games. The final straw for the 34-year-old veteran might have been when he missed one of his two extra-point tries in the preseason finale on Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams. Hopkins entered training camp on shaky ground at the position after going 18-for-27 on his field goals in 16 games a year ago.

Friday, September 12, 11:29 PM

Chicago Bears kicker Cairo Santos had a rough start to his 12th NFL season. He connected on three extra points but went just 1-of-2 on field goals, missing a crucial 50-yarder that ultimately proved to be the difference in the loss to the Minnesota Vikings. To make matters worse, on the final kickoff, the Bears needed Santos to boot the ball out of the end zone, but his short kick was returned and forced the clock to run down to the two-minute warning. Frustration with Santos' kicking strength appears to be growing in Chicago, as the team signed former 49ers kicker Jake Moody to the practice squad ahead of Week 2. With the Bears traveling to Detroit, Santos enters the week ranked as K23 and should be considered unstartable in fantasy. This could be a make-or-break week for his job security.