Who Should I Start? Dustin Hopkins or Zane Gonzalez

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, December 20, 3:07 PM

Atlanta Falcons kicker Zane Gonzalez has been solid as the team's third placekicker this year, going 11-for-13 in the six games he's played, with both misses coming from more than 50 yards out. He's also 11-for-11 on extra point attempts. The 30-year-old is on the streaming radar for Week 16's road matchup against the Cardinals, as Arizona has given up 35 points per contest over the last three weeks, which is second-worst in the NFL over that stretch, and Atlanta owns an implied total of 25 for this contest, so there is scoring expected in this one. Gonzalez won't have to deal with any elements playing indoors in Arizona either, so it sets him up as a potential top 12 kicking option for Week 16.