Who Should I Start? Dustin Hopkins or Eddy Piñeiro

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.

Saturday, October 18, 1:23 AM

San Francisco 49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro has been one of the NFL's top scorers lately, going 8-for-8 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points over his last two games. The 30-year-old has been a terrific addition for the Niners, who moved on from the plight of Jake Moody earlier this year and have gotten consistent production out of his replacement. This week, Pineiro takes on the Atlanta Falcons, who rank near the middle of the league in limiting kicker points. The Falcons have allowed the 12th-most fantasy points to kickers, giving Pineiro an opportunity to remain highly effective yet again. He should be streamed and/or started in most leagues this week.