Who Should I Start? Dustin Hopkins or Jude McAtamney

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.

Thursday, October 23, 12:37 PM

Kicker Jude McAtamney has returned to the New York Giants' practice squad on Thursday on an International Player Program exemption after the team released him earlier in the week, according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN. With regular kicker Graham Gano (groin) on Injured Reserve, McAtamney was the team's fill-in placekicker from Weeks 4-7, but he was cut this week after his two crucial missed extra points proved to be the difference in the team's 33-32 loss at the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Gano has returned to practice this week and could make his return from IR this Sunday against the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles, but if he doesn't, they have the option of elevating former Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo from the practice squad. The 25-year-old McAtamney, who is from Northern Ireland, made both of his field-goal attempts but missed three of his 12 extra points in his four games with New York.