Who Should I Start? Justin Tucker or Dustin Hopkins

Monday, November 24, 11:01 AM

The New Orleans Saints are hosting kicker tryouts, and free agent Justin Tucker is among the players invited, according to Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. Tucker served a 10-game suspension to start the 2025 season for violating the NFL's conduct policy after being the target of multiple sexual misconduct allegations. The 35-year-old is now free to sign with any team, and New Orleans is apparently interested in giving him a look after kicker Blake Grupe missed two field goal attempts in the team's Week 12 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The 35-year-old Tucker is a five-time All-Pro who made 89.1% of his 468 career field goal attempts over 13 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens from 2012 to 2024. However, he had his worst NFL season by far in 2024, making just 22 of 30 field goal attempts and just 11 out of 19 from 40-plus yards out. Even if he gets a second chance in the NFL with New Orleans, Tucker should likely remain off fantasy radars.

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.