BEREA, Ohio — The Browns have had some question marks at kicker through this preseason as fourth-round pick Cade York struggled at times in all four games. Now, a new face joins the special teams unit after the Browns made a trade for a new kicker and released York.
Cleveland has traded a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for kicker Dustin Hopkins, a league source confirmed.
Hopkins, 32, was a sixth-round draft pick out of Florida State, taken by the Buffalo Bills.
Over the years, Hopkins has spent time on the Bills, Saints, Washington and most recently, the Chargers.
Hopkins has kicked in 109 career games, making 190 of his 224 field goal attempts—an average of 84.8%—with a career-long of 56 yards. He's made 94.4% of his PATs.
With the trade for Hopkins, the Browns are releasing York.
York, a 2022 fourth-round pick, quickly rose to stardom after making a game-winning 58-yard field goal in Week 1 last season to give the Browns their first season opener victory in 18 years.
Over the season, York began to struggle at times, missing multiple game-winners. He had a new focus coming into the 2023 season, but missed four field goal attempts this preseason.
The Browns remained confident in him through his struggles at the start of the preseason, but made the call to move on after the final preseason game against the Chiefs, where he missed another game-winner.
During the preseason, Camryn Justice talked to York about his rookie-year ups and downs.
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