Who Should I Start? Dustin Hopkins or Ka'imi Fairbairn

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, December 12, 11:02 PM

Houston Texans kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn has been locked in all season, making 29 of 32 field goal attempts and 18 extra points. The fact that he has almost twice as many field goals as extra points shows how conservative the Texans typically are on offense, as they lean into the strength of their defense to win most matchups. Fairbairn converted both of his field goals and both of his extra points in last week's win in Kansas City, and he'll have an even better matchup this week against the Cardinals, who have given up the third-most points to kickers this season. Fiarbairn also gets to kick indoors in NRG Stadium, so the weather won't be a factor. In a great environment and a favorable matchup, Fairbairn is ranked as the No. 4 kicker in RotoBaller's Week 15 rankings