PITTSBURGH — This season has been full of struggles for Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins. Wide left has been a trend for Hopkins, and that trend continued Sunday against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers.
Hopkins entered the game with a career-low 69.6% field goal attempt rate. He had missed seven of his 23 attempts, playing three games where he failed to place a kick between the uprights once. Five of his misses were wide left, one was wide right, and one was low and blocked.
In the Browns' last game, on Monday night against the Denver Broncos, Hopkins missed his first field goal attempt of the night, a 47-yard shot wide left. Later that game, however, Hopkins was able to find redemption, making a 45-yard attempt to gain a lead.
After that redemption, special team coordinator Bubba Ventrone praised Hopkins for being able to correct himself mid-game.
“Yeah, I think he did a good job of just obviously self-correcting what had happened. Looked like he came across his body a little bit on the swing. So, it was good that he got the correction applied and made the rest of the kicks," Ventrone said on Thursday, heading into the Browns' matchup with the Steelers.
The belief entering Sunday's game was that Hopkins had figured out what had been plaguing him through much of the season. Ventrone said that Hopkins had been watching film from the first 12 weeks of this season and comparing it to tape from his year last season, where he set franchise records kicking for the Browns.
Despite the ups and downs this season, Ventrone had confidence that Hopkins' frustrations were in check and he was on a path to getting back on track.
"I think when you’re [not] getting the results that you want, obviously you’re going to have some type of frustration. I think he’s done a good job of honing it in and trying to apply the correction to the next rep. Thankfully in this past game we had the miss and then he goes back and makes the rest of his kicks," Ventrone said. "But like I said, I mean, any player at any position is going to be frustrated if you’re not having a good result. So, I would anticipate he’s definitely had some frustration, but he hasn’t shown it. And I think he’s done a pretty good job of bouncing back.”
Unfortunately, that bounce back failed to come to fruition on Sunday.
Inside Acrisure Stadium, struggle reared its ugly head for Hopkins.
On a 38-yard attempt near the end of the first half, Hopkins attempted to make it a three-point game with the Steelers up 13-7. Instead, his kick sailed wide left, and the Browns retained a six-point deficit heading into halftime.
Unlike the game in Denver, Hopkins' next kick did not come with redemption. On the first drive coming out of the half, the Browns offense stalled at Pittsburgh's 25-yard line. The Browns turned to Hopkins, hoping he'd be able to correct whatever went wrong on his first attempt. An over-correction, Hopkins' 43-yard attempt this time went wide right.
"Yeah, usually I try to hit the same ball, but I had missed so many times left this year I was like, well, and the wind was also moving right to left, so I was like, I'm going to err right. And I had late leg lock and erred too far," Hopkins said after the game.
Hopkins ended the game 0/2 on field goal attempts.
It's hard to believe how drastic the difference has been for Hopkins this season compared to last, especially after the Browns signed the kicker to a three-year contract extension worth $15.9 million, keeping him in Cleveland through the 2027 season.
Last season, Hopkins became the first kicker in NFL history to convert a 50+ yard field goal in five consecutive games within a single season.
Hopkins said this is not the player he knows himself to be. The misses have left him frustrated, not just for himself but for the team, the organization and the city of Cleveland.
"I'm paid to make those kicks so I want to. I want it more for my teammates and the coaching staff and ownership in this city I think more than I want it for myself. So yeah, I want that for this group and it's frustrating in one sense, obviously professionally, I invest a lot of time and effort into what I do, and to see it not come to fruition is frustrating," he said.
Still, the Browns kicker is turning to his faith as he aims to get right.
"My foundation's in Christ. It's unshakeable. I'm not afraid of failures or successes, either one. I still have peace on the field even though it hasn't necessarily turned into made kicks as much as I want. I still feel really good mentally, which might not make sense to some people out there, but I feel good. I'm not panicked. I just need to find a good swing. And so the swing has been tough to find this year," Hopkins said. "But you got to treat it like you just said, this is not who I am as a player and I'm going to do everything I can within my power to be the best version of myself I can be for this team, for this city, and for myself."
The Browns have four games remaining on the schedule for Hopkins to truly figure out what has been the issue and hope to correct it for the 2025 season, because as head coach Kevin Stefanski said after Sunday's game, Hopkins is their kicker.
And the Browns are keeping faith in Hopkins moving forward, despite the struggles he's working through this season.
"I'm sure he's the toughest critic so he's going to go out there and we have a lot of faith in Dustin and he made a lot of big kicks for us in his career here so I've got faith in him," said left guard Joel Bitonio.
Linebacker Jordan Hicks, who was seen patting Hopkins on the back after one of his missed field goals Sunday in support of the kicker, shared similar sentiments.
"There's no waiver in our belief in him. There's going to be moments in the next four games where we're going to need him to make big field goals—we've got all the belief that he's going to," Hicks said.
