Don’t kick Hopkins to the curb

In the very least, kicker Dustin Hawk Hopkins cost the Browns a chance to win the game Sunday in Pittsburgh.

He might, actually, have cost the Browns a victory outright. But we’ll never know that for sure. We can only speculate.

He missed two easy field goals, one at the end of the first half and one at the beginning of the second half, when the Browns were trailing just 13–7. Add in those six points to the Browns’ total, then and in the end, and you can see what it would’ve done to the score and the team’s momentum.

What ended up as a 27–14 loss certainly could’ve been different.

These are not the first problems this season for Hopkins. He is in a real slump.

Now, the inclination by some of you might be to cut Hopkins. And I am sure that is a possiboliyythe Browns are mulling over right now.

But I say to forget about it. Leave Hopkins alone.

Why?

Because if the Browns are willing to give quarterback Deshaun Watson, who can’t play, 1,001 chances to prove himself, then they need to give Dustin Hopkins a few more opportunities to show that he can do what he did last year when he rescued the Browns many, many times en route to the playoffs.

Steve King